Obama’s team found Brown “dour and depressing”, Cameron “dynamic”

September 29th, 2009 LONDON - The flagging popularity of Britain's ruling Labour Party was highlighted Tuesday by an opinion poll that showed that the party led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown had slipped to third place in the estimation of the voter. The Ipsos Mori poll, published on the day Brown is due to give a keynote speech to the annual Labour Party conference, put Labour at 24 percent, the opposition Liberal Democrats at 25 percent and the bigger opposition Conservative Party at 36 percent.

September 27th, 2009 LONDON - A recent poll has suggested that British voters think Tory leader David Cameron would make a better Prime Minister than Gordon Brown. According to the ICM survey for the News of the World, some 43 per cent voters said that Cameron was the best choice, while just 20 per cent believe that Brown is the best man for the job out of the current three main party leaders.

September 26th, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Ashfaq Kayani has been ranked higher than Pope Benedict XVI and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a list published by a British political magazine, which highlights 50 individuals who have been instrumental in having an impact in today's scenario around the world. New Statesman's list of "50 People Who Matter Today", has the Obamas as the most influential people in the world, while Kayani has been ranked at 24th position, way ahead of the Pope or Brown, The Daily Times reports.

September 21st, 2009 LONDON - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair thinks his successor Gordon Brown is a political "quitter" who could stand down before the next election. According to a new book, Blair has told his inner circle that Brown does not have enough political courage.

September 16th, 2009 LONDON - The number of people out of work in Britain has risen to a 14-year-high to hit 2.47 million, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. Joblessness increased by 210,000 to 2.47 million in the three months to July, taking the rate of unemployment to 7.9 percent.

September 15th, 2009 LONDON - Nearly half of the British population believes that anyone in the Labour Party can do a better job than Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a new poll has found. According to a Populus Poll conducted by The Times, 48 per cent of voters think that "literally anyone" from Labour's ranks could do better, while only a third say that Brown is the best leader available for the party.

September 7th, 2009 VIENNA - Ripe bananas glow blue in ultraviolet light, possibly helping monkeys to spot choice fruit, Austrian researchers have found in a study. "When brown spots develop, blue halos appear around them," said Bernhard Kraeutler, an organic chemist at the University of Innsbruck who published the work of his team in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Monday.

September 2nd, 2009 LONDON - Britain's Conservative Party has accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown of double dealing with regard to the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi. An official document has emerged claiming that Libya was told that Brown wanted the Lockerbie bomber to die a free man.

July 31st, 2009 LONDON - Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Government is now as unpopular as John Major's was the year before his Conservative party suffered a landslide general election defeat, according to a new poll. A Daily Telegraph YouGov poll found that 70 per cent of voters now disapprove of the Brown Government's record, with only 17 per cent approving of it.

July 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - For their summer vacation, the Obamas are reportedly headed to Martha's Vineyard. The trip, however, could come with some complications for the first family, reports Politico.

June 21st, 2009 LONDON - Dashing hopes of Labour Party rebels, British Prime Minister has declared that he will be leading the party at the next election, and has no intention on quitting the leadership. "I'm just getting on with the job.

June 5th, 2009 LONDON - A fourth British minister resigned in four days Friday, spurring Prime Minister Gordon Brown to begin reshuffling his cabinet in the middle of a deepening political crisis. Pressure mounted on Brown to quit after John Hutton resigned as defence secretary, following the shock resignation of James Purnell as work and pension secretary late Thursday night.

June 5th, 2009 LONDON - A combative British Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared he "will not walk away" as he reshuffled his cabinet on a stormy Friday amid a string of ministerial resignations. The reshuffle came as the ruling Labour Party took a pounding in elections to local municipal authorities, but Brown rejected resignation calls by opposition parties and a growing number of Labour rebels.

June 2nd, 2009 NEW YORK - New York's billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg has claimed that a dinner and Broadway undertaken by Barack Obama and his wife Michelle is a celebration of New York's affordable night life.I can't think of anything that is better as an advertisement for our tourism industry, for Broadway, for our restaurants, for saying that this is a safe city and an affordable city," Bloomberg said Monday. "The President doesn't get paid that much.

May 22nd, 2009 LONDON - English barrister Cherie Blair has revealed that her husband, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, loses his temper with her if dinner is not on the table when he gets home. In an interview with Total Politics, she revealed him to be a "very traditional" man, reports the Telegraph.