UK-News Summary

Friday 5 June 2009 11:58:52 - Breaking News - Source: Reuters Reuters

Brown seeks to save government with reshuffle

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown backed down from replacing his chancellor on Friday in a bid to hold his government together and end a political crisis that has knocked sterling. The pound hit a two-week low against the euro after the resignation of more senior ministers, making four in as many days, and local election results that pointed to expected big losses for Labour but no clear swing to the Conservatives.

Defence Secretary John Hutton confirms standing down

LONDON (Reuters) - Defence Secretary John Hutton confirmed he was standing down on Friday and said he would not contest the next election, but he said his decision was not a move against Prime Minister Gordon Brown. "I'm standing down from the cabinet today because I'm leaving frontline politics," Hutton told the BBC in an interview and reiterated in a statement.

Rio dumps Chinalco for BHP

MELBOURNE/LONDON (Reuters) - Miner Rio Tinto spurned $19.5 billion (12.1 billion pounds) of funding from China on Friday in favour of a cost-saving iron ore joint venture with rival BHP Billiton and a share sale to slash its debts. The deal with Chinese metals group Chinalco was put together in February at the height of the financial crisis in a bid to halve Rio's $38 billion of debt. It's collapse under shareholder pressure leaves China, the world's biggest steel making nation, vulnerable to just two suppliers -- a Rio/BHP combination and Brazil's Vale -- controlling 70 percent of global iron ore trade.

Prescott fumes as Labour suffer poll losses

LONDON (Reuters) - Former deputy prime minister John Prescott said on Friday that Labour had run a "non-campaign" in this week's local and European elections. In the first results, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives were early winners in the council polls with Labour losing 23 council seats.

Obama hopeful of Mideast peace progress this year

DRESDEN, Germany (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday he was hopeful of making serious progress in reviving Middle East peace talks this year but made clear the path would be tough. Speaking a day after offering the Islamic world a "new beginning" with the United States, Obama reaffirmed his commitment to the peace process, saying he feared that if action was not taken now Palestinians and Israelis could become too entrenched to return to the peace table.

Fianna Fail faces rout in Irish elections

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Prime Minister Brian Cowen's governing Fianna Fail party faced a rout on Friday in elections for local councils, the European Parliament and two Irish parliamentary seats. Fianna Fail has dominated Irish politics since the 1930s, but voters are angry after fiscal and banking crises left Ireland mired in its worst recession on record.

GCSE exam students given last year's papers

LONDON (Reuters) - Hundreds of pupils sitting French GCSE exams were given last year's papers by mistake, exam board Edexcel said on Friday. Around 1,800 students sitting French reading and listening papers may be affected by the slip-up on Thursday, the exam setter said.

Factory costs dive as construction slumps

LONDON (Reuters) - Input costs for firms fell at their sharpest annual rate in 7-1/2 years in May as the price of oil and imported metals fell at a record pace, official data showed on Friday. Separate data showed construction output fell at its sharpest quarterly rate since 1963 in the first three months of this year and at a far sharper pace than in the last estimate of Q1 GDP.

TV joint venture delayed

LONDON (Reuters) - A proposed TV joint venture between the BBC, ITV and telecoms group BT has been delayed after the body which oversees the publicly-owned corporation said it needed more information to approve the plan. The BBC Trust said in a statement it would delay its consultation on the project, which would determine whether to approve the service, until it had more information such as on governance and technical arrangements for the joint venture.

Coroner seeks cause of Carradine's death

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai coroners completed an autopsy on Friday on the body of actor David Carradine, a day after the star of the U.S. television show "Kung Fu" was found naked and hanging dead in his luxury Bangkok hotel room. Coroners at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn hospital said they had not yet determined the cause of the 72-year-old's death and were waiting for the results of a toxicology screen.