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Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir has said that she will join tens of thousands of women walking off the job on Tuesday to protest the widely disputed gender wage gap. For the seventh time in the history of the country, female Icelanders will take part in the “Kvennafri,” translated into English as “Women’s Day Off”. The strike is intended to protest the supposed inequality faced by women in one of the most egalitarian societies in the world, as well as to protest against the supposed wage gap between men and women. Joining the tens of thousands of women, Prime Minister...

The Conservative party under Prime Minister Theresa May has failed to win an outright majority; this means that she has the option of either plodding along as a minority (with little hope of getting a Queen’s speech or a budget passed), or of forming a coalition. It is fairly clear that neither the Labour, Lib-Dems, or Independents are likely to get into bed with her party, so that leaves the Northern Ireland’s DUP (the Democratic Unionist Party), who won 10 seats. This would give a very slender majority (just over 326). But what price will the DUP exact for their...

The National Fraud Unit now believes Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made "personal use" of the funds he received from New York financier Morris Talansky, a senior law enforcement official confirmed, as a media-ban on the criminal investigation was lifted Wednesday evening. "Talansky transferred money to Olmert for personal use, and not just for campaign expenses," the official said. Olmert has claimed that the stream of cash envelopes he received from Talansky over a period of years was used to fund election campaigns, and to cover campaign deficits - but his assertion is now openly being challenged by police. The charge...

Stop the squabbling, MPs tell Blair and BrownBy George Jones and Toby Helm (Filed: 11/01/2005) Labour MPs delivered a stinging rebuke to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown last night for a new outbreak of feuding that has threatened to derail the start of the party's election campaign. A direct challenge was made to the Chancellor to deny or withdraw his reported claim that he no longer trusted a word the Prime Minister said - an accusation the Tories are preparing to use in their election material. Others called for party officials and ministers who were stoking the personal rivalry to...

Who's who in Iraq: Iyad Allawi Iyad Allawi is one of a US-backed clique of secular Iraqi opposition figures who lived in exile until the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003. But as a candidate for the prime mistership he has the advantage - to paraphrase one commentator - of being equally mistrusted by everyone. Religious leaders think he is too secular, the US-led coalition now sees him as a critic, for the anti-Saddam opposition he is an ex-Baathist, while ordinary Iraqis say he is a CIA man. Born in 1945 to a prominent Shia Muslim merchant family,...