15/01/2013 00:00
TW
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In Britain, with only two or three months left before a general election, two former Cabinet ministers, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt, attempted to organise a secret ballot among Labour MPs on Gordon Brown's leadership; there was little support for the proposal and it died quickly. However, public expressions of support for the prime minister by senior ministers were luke-warm.

Iceland's president ruled that there should be a referendum on the government's proposal to pay 5.5 billion pounds compensation to British and Dutch investors who lost money when Icelandic banks collapsed in 2008.

A Jordanian suicide bomber killed seven CIA officers at a base in Afghanistan; the bomber was later identified as a double-agent.

Afghanistan's parliament rejected in secret ballots more that half of the 24 ministerial nominations made by President Karsai who said he would present alternative names.