David Stringer

Mining's biggest spin-off in a decade offers investors a once unthinkable plus: China is not the Perth company's biggest customer.

Resources giant BHP Billiton plans a demerger in order to streamline and simplify its operations and South African assets are on the chopping block.

Anglo American is prepared to be opportunistic in pursuing acquisitions even as falling commodity prices force the mining industry to cut spending.

Rio Tinto will keep its diamond businesses after failing to find a buyer and deciding not to pursue an initial public offering of the unit.

A chaotic wave of violence and looting raged across London and spread to three other major British cities on Tuesday.

World powers were meeting in London on Tuesday seeking to plot out an endgame for Muammar Gaddafi's tottering regime.

Porn movies. Manure. A chocolate Santa Claus. Expense claims by British ministers to pay for an array of items were exposed in a report on Friday.

Dissent over British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's faltering performance is threatening to hit a crescendo this weekend.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown threatened on Wednesday to boycott a summit of European and African leaders if Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe is allowed to attend. He called on fellow heads of state to increase pressure on Harare before the planned December talks between the European Union and African Union.

Muslims angered by Britain's decision to honour author Salman Rushdie with a knighthood were rallying in London on Friday, warning that anger over the award could match the fierce reaction to publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark last year.

Flawed emergency planning and communications breakdowns marred the response to last July's London transit bombings, says an official report published on Monday. The London Assembly's report highlights both the heroism and the confusion of emergency crews responding to the bombs, which killed 52 commuters and four bombers.

Moira Shearer, a British ballerina who rose to worldwide prominence with the lead role in the 1948 film The Red Shoes, has died, her husband said on Wednesday. She was 80. Shearer died on Tuesday at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, southern England, said her husband.