A US Senate hearing turned the spotlight on the role of big banks in the trading of key commodities yesterday, with one lawmaker questioning the extent to which lenders engage in the market for physical commodities.

New global rules to force tax avoiders to “pay their fair share” will be introduced under a 15-point action plan launched by the OECD yesterday.

Local councillor receives suspended sentence for 'should be raped' comments and immigration minister Cecile Kyenge is met with noose protests

Elder daughter of former vice president to challenge sitting Republican Senator Mike Enzi next year

Republican Governor Rick Perry certain to sign, disregarding historic 11-hour speech by Senator Wendy Davis

On Monday Texas Governor Rick Perry announced that he is retiring at the end of his term. Perry’s is most famous internationally for his hopeless run to be the Republican Presidential candidate in 2011-2012.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was allegedly paid from a slush fund operated by the governing People’s Party (PP) when he was a minister in the 1990s, according to documents published in the newspaper El Mundo. The accusations drew denials from the PP and calls for Mr Rajoy’s resignation, from opposition parties weary of austerity measures and an economy mired in recession.

The world we think we live in simply does not exist, and the media and politicians share the blame

Kevin Rudd signals tougher measures to stop illegal immigrants feigning refugee status

Texas governor Rick Perry calls special legislative session to force through controversial bill to ban abortions in his state

Former IMF chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, delivers confident lecture two years after claims he sexually assaulted maid

The rules for speaking in the Texas Senate are strict, so Davis' speech blocking an anti-abortion bill is a historical achievement - even if she missed her self-imposed target

Let's hope the senator fights Texas' abortion bill a second time round

Thomas Penfield Jackson, who died of cancer on 16 June at the age of 76, was a federal judge in Washington who presided over a Microsoft antitrust case and ordered the software giant to be split up. He also presided over the the drug possession trial of the former Mayor of Washington, Marion Barry.