The far-right British National Party on Thursday agreed to consider letting nonwhite members join after the country's Equality and Human Rights Commission took them to court.
Britons including Prime Minister Gordon Brown have leapt to the defense of their creaking healthcare service after President Barack Obama's plans for a similar system in the United States were branded "evil" by Republicans.
Voters endorsed fringe parties and those of the center right in elections for the 736 seats of the European Parliament in the midst of a record low turnout, officials figures showed on Monday.
From the south-eastern edge of Europe, Turkish government officials expressed concern about the gains by right-wing parties in the European Parliament elections.
Leading parties in Germany and France won seats in the European Parliament by wide margins, according to early returns, while the United Kingdom awaited much-anticipated results from what is billed as the world's largest exercise in democracy.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday he was "disappointed" over the resignation of his work and pensions secretary, the third Cabinet minister to step down in as many days.
Voters in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands became the first European Union citizens to go to the polls Thursday to elect a new European Parliament.
The election of 736 members from 27 member countries to the European Parliament in June will be the biggest transnational electoral contest there has ever been. Between them they will represent more than 500,000,000 people.
Does trans-national democracy work? Or is Europe about to see a wave of new Far Right politicians and mavericks marching from obscurity to national prominence thanks to an election most voters are neglecting? Between June 4 and June 7 it could happen.
Now it is political. With the public holding their noses as they pass the British Parliament, so tainted has it become by the shameless exploitation of a sloppily-policed expenses system by elected representatives from all quarters, it has become a competition between the parties as to who can most deftly extricate themselves from the mire.
The far-right British National Party on Thursday agreed to consider letting nonwhite members join after the country's Equality and Human Rights Commission took them to court.
Britons including Prime Minister Gordon Brown have leapt to the defense of their creaking healthcare service after President Barack Obama's plans for a similar system in the United States were branded "evil" by Republicans.
Voters endorsed fringe parties and those of the center right in elections for the 736 seats of the European Parliament in the midst of a record low turnout, officials figures showed on Monday.
From the south-eastern edge of Europe, Turkish government officials expressed concern about the gains by right-wing parties in the European Parliament elections.
Leading parties in Germany and France won seats in the European Parliament by wide margins, according to early returns, while the United Kingdom awaited much-anticipated results from what is billed as the world's largest exercise in democracy.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday he was "disappointed" over the resignation of his work and pensions secretary, the third Cabinet minister to step down in as many days.
Voters in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands became the first European Union citizens to go to the polls Thursday to elect a new European Parliament.
The election of 736 members from 27 member countries to the European Parliament in June will be the biggest transnational electoral contest there has ever been. Between them they will represent more than 500,000,000 people.
Does trans-national democracy work? Or is Europe about to see a wave of new Far Right politicians and mavericks marching from obscurity to national prominence thanks to an election most voters are neglecting? Between June 4 and June 7 it could happen.
Now it is political. With the public holding their noses as they pass the British Parliament, so tainted has it become by the shameless exploitation of a sloppily-policed expenses system by elected representatives from all quarters, it has become a competition between the parties as to who can most deftly extricate themselves from the mire.
Top executives of leading international banks were meeting the British prime minister and treasury chief Tuesday to discuss kick-starting the global financial system ahead of next month's G20 summit.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared victory Sunday night in a constitutional referendum that will allow him to run for a third six-year term in 2012.
Venezuela on Friday expelled a Spanish member of the European Parliament after he called President Hugo Chavez a dictator and criticized Chavez's handling of a referendum on term limits that the lawmaker had been set to observe.
A group of Iranian intellectuals released a public apology this week for what they say is a long history of the country's mistreatment of members of the Baha'i faith.
British union leaders will recommend Thursday ending an unofficial strike that has dragged on more than a week at the country's third-largest oil refinery, the arbitrator in the dispute announced Wednesday.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday the time has come for the international community to bear its "legal, political and moral responsibilities" in order to reach peace in the Middle East.
Iranian authorities have reportedly arrested several women for doing missionary work for the Baha'is, the religious group whose persecution by the Islamic republic has been condemned by human rights activists and governments around the globe.
Italian newspapers, an archbishop and civil liberties campaigners expressed shock and revulsion on Monday after photographs were published of sunbathers apparently enjoying a day at the beach just meters from where the bodies of two drowned Roma girls were laid out on the sand.
The European Parliament on Wednesday approved controversial new rules for expelling illegal immigrants from the bloc, overcoming opposition and protests
Jeremy Rifkin is an internationally renowned economist, social critic and author. Since 1977 he has been president of the Foundation On Economic Trends (FOET). For the last 14 years he has been a fellow at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program. He has written 17 highly successful and thought-provoking books including "The End of Work" (1995), "The Hydrogen Economy" (2002) and most recently "The European Dream" (2004).
Legislators in Peru plan to lodge a protest on Friday with the European Parliament after it declined to list the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, an insurgent group, as a terrorist organization.
Video courtesy Good Morning AmericaHeather Mills broke down in tears on Britain's GMTV on Wednesday, as she addressed her battles with the tabloid press and her ongoing divorce from Paul McCartney.
It's all well and good governments and the public demanding cleaner air, but how are those charged with effecting reductions of pollutants -- the automobile and truck manufacturers -- going to tackle a problem that can't simply be fixed overnight?
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a contentious figure in French politics. A far-right nationalist, he brought the Front National Party into the limelight in 2002 when he reached the presidential run-offs against Jacques Chirac.
Romania's arrival in the European Union has had one unexpected effect -- it has handed a significant bonus to the forces of the far right in the European Parliament.
European countries knew about U.S. secret jails for terrorism suspects and have obstructed an investigation into the transport and illegal detention of prisoners, a draft European Parliament report said on Tuesday.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has faced a barrage of criticism over the EU budget deal he brokered as European lawmakers said they could not accept it unless governments put up more cash.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has suggested that European leaders are pretending to be shocked by news reports America took suspected terrorists to secret prison camps in Europe for interrogation.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has told the European Parliament that he hopes to resolve a bitter row over the European Union's budget when members meet for a summit in December.
European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson on Tuesday urged EU member states to back a plan to release millions of euros' worth of Chinese-made garments stuck in European ports, warning that a failure to do so could lead to economic hardship.
Here is the full text of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's speech to the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday, as provided by the UK's Press Association:
Treasury prices staged a late rally Monday on news the federal government would sell just $22 billion in two-year notes at its auction Wednesday while warnings of slow economic growth in Europe by its Central Bank president attracted foreign investors.
A is for Advertising, which at election times more than ever reminds us of George Orwell's definition of the trade: "The rattling of sticks in swill buckets."
British insularity, and self-belief, was famously demonstrated by the old 1940s newspaper headline: "Fog in Channel: Continent cut off." But something similar seems to be happening in this election. Europe has been cut off again for the duration of the contest.
Pope John Paul II appears to feeling better and he was eager to return to work, according to a bishop who visited the pontiff Saturday at the Rome hospital where he is being treated for a respiratory infection.
A business traveler from Morocco arrives at a British airport. Instead of showing his passport, a camera checks that the pattern of his iris matches official computer records.
The European Parliament has called for a rerun of the Ukrainian presidential election between Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who was proclaimed the winner amid allegations of fraud.
Protesters in Kiev's main square watched a crucial Supreme Court debate on outdoor TV screens Thursday as Ukraine awaited the judges' ruling on the country's election crisis.
The embattled head of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso said he would conduct a "very limited" reshuffle of his proposed EU executive and hoped to present it to the European Parliament in less than a month.
The incoming head of the European Commission has defended his decision to delay a vote on his embattled executive team, saying he was confident he could find support for a new team.
European workers could find themselves better protected from long hours if European Commission proposals to revise the Working Time Directive are accepted.
The European Parliament has approved former Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso as the next president of the European Union's executive commission.
Portugal's prime minister will be officially proposed as the next European Commission president following a painstaking search for a replacement for the outgoing Romano Prodi, it has been announced.
European Union leaders are facing a new round of difficult talks to strike a deal on a historic constitution, six months after a first attempt collapsed amid acrimony.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, reacting to big election gains by anti-European Union candidates, has pledged to keep the UK within the 25-nation bloc.
When the "Ode to Joy" rang out in Dublin, Ireland to welcome 10 new nations to the European Union last month, there was an overwhelming sense of political and economic optimism.
An international arrest warrant has been issued for an Algerian man whose fingerprints allegedly match those found on a plastic bag of detonators linked to the March 11 Madrid train bombings.
European Parliament President Pat Cox has announced he will not run for re-election in June, ending more than two years as leader of the EU legislature.
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