UK lawmakers call for speaker to quit over expense scandal

Michael Martin, the speaker of the House of Commons, rebuffed calls from lawmakers for his resignation Monday amid widespread public anger about improper expense claims by UK members of parliament. Martin said lawmakers had let the public down “very badly indeed,” adding: “To the extent that I have contributed, I am profoundly sorry,” said Martin

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British MP cut adrift over $24,000 expense claim

Britain’s ruling Labour Party cut ties Thursday with a top member of parliament who admitted guilt in an escalating parliamentary expenses scandal. Lawmaker Elliot Morley was suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party, a party spokesman told CNN. It means he retains his parliamentary seat but is stripped of his party affiliation.

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UK’s Brown suffers first defeat — on Gurkhas

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suffered a stinging defeat in Parliament Wednesday, losing a vote over the right of Ghurkha veterans to settle in the United Kingdom. It was the first time Brown has lost a vote in parliament since he became prime minister in 2007

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Iceland votes in crisis elections

Voting was under way Saturday in Iceland in a general election triggered by the country’s financial crisis and the subsequent collapse of the government. Opinion polls suggest the center-left Social Democratic Alliance, which has headed an interim government since February 1, is on course for an election victory which would give Johanna Sigurdardottir a mandate to continue as prime minister. Sigurdardottir, the world’s first openly gay leader and Iceland’s first female premier, has pledged to take the Nordic island into the European Union and to join the euro common currency if elected as a viable way to rescue Iceland’s suffering economy

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Nationwide ‘tea party’ protests blast bailouts

Conservatives are showing they know their way around the Internet just as well as liberals, as hundreds of organized "tea party" protests are planned across the nation Wednesday. The protests are in part a backlash against what some view as excessive government spending and bailouts. Heralded on videos and blogs, the movement also appears, in part, a reflection of a general anger among people who contend the government takes too much from their pocketbooks

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Report: Dane in running for NATO top job

The Danish prime minister has told his party he is a candidate for NATO’s top job, a spokeswoman for the party told Danish TV on Friday. Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced his aspirations to the Liberal Party Friday morning, party spokeswoman Inger Stojberg said in an interview posted on Denmark’s TV2 News Web site.

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UK lawmakers aim to ‘force’ Hamas talks

A group of British politicians is trying to force the government in London to talk to Hamas, the militant Palestinian movement considered a terrorist organization by the United Kingdom, one of the politicians told CNN. Baroness Jenny Tonge, a member of the House of Lords, met the political leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, in Syria along with other British politicians on Saturday, she said.

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