President Barack Obama

Pakistan's top spy agency has arrested five Pakistani informants who assisted the CIA ahead of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Greece has become the lowest rated country in the world, falling behind nations such as Jamaica and Grenada after Standard and Poor's cut the country's rating by three notches. Greece now has a credit rating of CCC, down from its rating of B and it is expected to be reduced further. There is now growing frustration in Europe over the efforts being made by the Greek government with a default the most likely outcome.

Just as leaders from Nato members countries maintain that following the operation in Libya, Gaddafi's days in power are numbered, and as Nato officials this week insisted the operation was a success, US defence secretary, Robert Gates, today delivered a blistering attack on European defence complacency, declaring that organisation has "become a "two-tiered" alliance of those willing to wage war and those only interested in "talking" and peacekeeping".

Despite being accused by the West of trying to produce atomic bombs, Iran stays defiant and announced on Wednesday that it will shift its production of higher grade uranium to an underground bunker in order to triple its production capacity."This year, under the supervision of the (International Atomic Energy) Agency, we will transfer 20 per cent enrichment from the Natanz site to the Fordow site and we will increase the production capacity by three times," the head of Iran's atomic...

Barack Obama had quite a journey last week, but he was not the only person making international headlines. Here's a quick reminder of what was a busy week in international politics.

Barack Obama's visit to Ireland and the United Kingdom was a barely disguised electioneering stunt, which saw the U.S. President grasping vainly at cultural straws.

After bilateral talks and a much talked about barbecue, both held at Ten Downing Street, Barack Obama continued his three-day state visit to the United Kingdom with a joint press conference where he and British Prime Minister David Cameron answered questions posed by the press.

US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron are due to give a press conference outside 10 Downing Street. Follow it here on our live blog

Barack Obama is currently holding talks with David Cameron in Downing Street, with the conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya expected to be high on the agenda of the bilateral talks that are expected to last about 90 minutes.

The Icelandic ash cloud left British airspace early on Wednesday morning according to the air traffic controller NATS.

The government said on Tuesday that ash from an Icelandic volcano would not lead to the total shutdown of airspace despite the cancellation of over 250 flights across Europe this morning.

As the latest ash cloud currently threatening European travel descends over Scotland, despite investment in new ash cloud detection and monitoring AVOID technology, budget airline easyJet is once again among the first set of airlines to cancel its flights.

A dense cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano was being blown toward Scotland Monday, yesterday. While airlines started to cancel their flights, U.S. President Barack Obama was forced to cut short his visit to Ireland as fears of disruptions similar to those engendered by the Icelandic Eyjafjallajökull eruption in April 2010 mounted.

The ash cloud from the erupting Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland is expected to disrupt U.K. flights from Tuesday morning, the Civil Aviation Authority said.

Us President Barack Obama's trip to Europe is indeed quite a trip as it will include visits to Ireland, Britain, France and Poland and a G-8 summit. The visit will start with Ireland, and finish with Poland.

Colonel Gaddafi will inevitably leave or be forced from power, says Barack Obama, after NATO allies continue their bombing campaign.

U.S. President Barack Obama is making a speech on the Middle East, viewed by many as a follow up to his 2009 Cairo speech. In it he gives his views on the "Arab Spring". Follow it here.

Barack Obama’s widely anticipated speech will see him try to rehabilitate the image of the US in the Middle East by repositioning the country as a solid supporter of newly-emerging Arab democracies. His speech comes amid criticism that the US has been too slow to support the uprisings, and has adopted contradictory approaches in its dealings with different countries.

US President Barack Obama yesterday introduced sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad and six of his deputies as the regime continued to impose oppressive measures against its own people. The announcement came a day before President Obama is due to make a major policy speech on the recent developments in the Middle East and northern Africa. The sanctions are largely symbolic as Assad has few assets in the US and is unlikely ever to visit the country but come as a reinforcement of pre-ex...

US president Barack Obama has just called Israelis and Palestinians to go back to the negotiating table, but with past peace processes seen as fragile and not very efficient, the several Israeli-Palestinian talks and deals have become renowned for their longevity and chronic inability to find a way to end the conflict.

As talks between Israel and Palestine have been frozen since last year because of a dispute over settlements, Barack Obama said the US and Jordan both wanted Israelis and Palestinians to go back to the negotiating table, adding that it was "more vital than ever" for Israelis and Palestinians to restart negotiations on a peace deal.

Before his death Osama bin Laden indicated that Al-Qaeda should not bother to assassinate U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden as he is not important enough.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of planning the 11 September terrorist attacks, which killed over 3,000 people in 2001, is to be tried by a military commission at Guantanamo Bay.

The American President, Barack Obama, has reportedly given authorisation to the CIA to conduct covert operations to help rebel forces in Libya.

It emerged today that Colin Firth, the lead actor in the new film "The King's Speech", in which he plays King George VI, may not be the biggest fan of the monarchy.

Shares in BP were up on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the Macondo oil well was declared "dead" by US officials yesterday.

Shares in BP were up in afternoon trading on the FTSE 100 after losing over one per cent of their value in morning trading.

Now however BP faces yet more attacks as U.S. legislators are looking not just at BP's safety precautions in the Gulf of Mexico, but at the possibility that the company may have lobbied for the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the man convicted of killing 270 people with the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988. Of the 270 victims 190 were from the U.S.

Britain's largest company, BP, is the world's third largest oil major, a global energy firm the main products of which are oil, natural gas and alternative fuels. Its 2009 revenues of just over $246 billion exceed the GDP of Finland and it employs over 80,000 people. The company's headquarters is in London, its American base is in Houston, Texas and it is listed on both the London and New York Stock Exchanges with British and American shareholders each accounting for some 40 percent o...

National leaders at the G20 summit in Canada have binned the idea of a global levy on banks and have committed themselves to cutting their national budget deficits, despite concerns from the USA and developing economies.