Opinion poll in the Independent showed all the major parties suffering a loss of support from a scandal over lawmakersÕ expenses.

Support for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labor Party has plunged 10 points and voters angry about an expenses scandal are rapidly losing faith in politicians, opinion polls showed on Tuesday.
Brown’s Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon became the latest high-flying politician to agree to pay back money after being accused of claiming allowances on two homes at the same time. He said he would repay 384 pounds ($629), Reuters reported.
Finance minister Alistair Darling on Monday apologized and agreed to repay 350 pounds after overclaiming expenses.

Interior Minister to Resign
Britain’s Home Secretary (interior minister) Jacqui Smith is to resign her government post.
A spokeswoman for Smith’s office said she could not confirm or deny the report and a spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office said the report was “speculation.“
Smith’s reputation was damaged after a leaked copy of her parliamentary expenses’ claim showed she charged taxpayers for the hire of two pornographic movies by her husband.
“It is just speculation,“ a Downing Street spokesman said. “We are not commenting any further.“
Smith, already under investigation over her housing allowance, said in March that she had mistakenly claimed for pay-per-view television when she submitted a bill for her Internet connection.
Two adult films were included in the claim after being ordered by Smith’s husband, Richard Timney, while she was away from the family house in Worcester, central England, in April 2008.
Smith’s large department at the Home Office oversees the police, counter-terrorism and immigration.
Britons are furious that many members of parliament have milked the expenses system, claiming taxpayer funds for everything from hiring porn films and cleaning their swimming pools at a time when many people are struggling to get through the recession.
An Ipsos MORI poll published in the Sun newspaper put Labor support at just 18 percent, level with Britain’s third party, the Liberal Democrats. It showed the gulf between Brown’s party and its main rival the Conservatives widening to 22 points.
A second opinion poll in the Independent showed all the major parties suffering a loss of support from a scandal over lawmakers’ expenses. Since it erupted last month, more than a dozen members of parliament--including another three Labor members on Tuesday--have been forced to announce they are stepping down at the next parliamentary election.
Brown, struggling to lead Britain through its worst recession in a generation, is already facing a rout in European and local elections on Thursday.

Reshuffling Key Posts
The prime minister is expected to reshuffle key ministerial posts next week in an attempt to reassert his authority before the parliamentary election, which he must call within a year.
Hoon and Darling may be in the firing line. Some Brown aides say they are urging him to put schools minister Ed Balls, a key Brown ally, into the finance ministry.
But Brown’s spokesman said the prime minister backed both ministers. “He thinks they are both doing very good jobs,“ the spokesman said.
Brown has insisted he will not step down despite dismal opinion polls ratings, saying he has a duty to clean up politics before calling the next election.

El Salvador’s newly elected president signed an agreement to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba, hours after being sworn in.
El Salvador severed diplomatic ties with Cuba 50 years ago, following the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, and had been the only Latin American country which had no diplomatic relations with Havana, RIA Novosti reported.
Mauricio Funes, 49, a former television journalist, was inaugurated in San Salvador on Monday. Funes won the March 15 election to become the first leftist leader in the history of the Central American state. He heads the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, formerly a rebel movement which fought the right-wing government during the 1980-92 civil war. The country had been governed by the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) party since the war.
After being sworn in, the president pledged to carry out wide-reaching reforms.
“Salvadorans asked for change. Change starts now,“ he said.
During the election campaign, he declared the resumption of diplomatic ties with Cuba as a top priority.

A request by the White House to keep secret certain documents regarding the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay has been rejected by a federal judge.
The unclassified documents are considered by the Obama administration as justification for the continued imprisonment of more than 100 prisoners at the detention center in Cuba, Presstv reported.
US District Judge Thomas Hogan ruled on Monday that the government cannot keep the documents from public disclosure, unless it seeks a court approval to keep specific information secret.
“Public interest in Guantanamo Bay generally and these proceedings specifically has been unwavering,“ Hogan wrote. “Publicly disclosing the factual returns would enlighten the citizenry and improve perceptions of the proceedings’ fairness,“ he added. During his campaign and after his election as the president of the United States, Barack Obama had vowed to close the prison, arguing that it alienated America from the rest of the world.
Closing the top-security prison has, however proved difficult as Republican opposition in Congress has blocked the decision. Critics claim that bringing the prisoner into the US for trial would put “dangerous terrorists“ in American neighborhoods.

China’s special envoy to Darfur met with Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir and pledged three million dollars in humanitarian aid for the volatile region, Sudanese officials said.
Liu Guijin “greeted the president for the beginning of the talks in Doha between the JEM and the government,“ Sudanese foreign ministry official Ali Youssif told AFP.
A new round of talks between the government and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the most active rebel group, are being held under Qatari mediation on an exchange of prisoners and eventually a ceasefire.
He said Liu also announced three million dollars in humanitarian aid for Darfur.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died in the western Somali region from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and about 2.7 million fled their homes. Sudan puts the death toll at 10,000.
China is seen as a key to ending the six-year war between the Khartoum government and Darfuri rebels because it is an ally of the Khartoum regime, a weapons supplier and importer of Sudanese oil.

India Tuesday expressed its “unhappiness“ over the release of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, the suspected mastermind behind the Mumbai terror attacks last November, saying it’s a “regrettable“ incident which demonstrates Pakistan’s inadequate seriousness in bringing those responsible for the attacks to justice.
“We are unhappy that Pakistan does not show the degree of seriousness and commitment that it should bring to justice perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack. It is a commentary on the commitment of Pakistan to investigate the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack,“ Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram told the media, Xinhua reported.
However, Chidambaram said that Saeed’s release from house arrest in Lahore, ordered by the Lahore High Court, would not hamper India’s investigations into the attacks which killed over 174 people, including foreign nationals.
Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna also expressed the country’s displeasure over the release of the chief of JuD, a frontal organization for terrorist organization Lashkar-e- Taiba which India says carried out the Mumbai attacks, saying this event is “regrettable“. Saeed was under house arrest since December 11 last year after the UN Security Council banned JuD, declaring it a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is blamed by India for the Mumbai terror attacks.

Right-wing Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov vowed on Tuesday to strengthen Israeli-Russian ties and played down tensions between the two countries.
Speaking on a visit to Moscow in which he was also due to meet President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Lieberman said Russian-Israeli ties had reached “their highest point“ ever, AFP reported.
“I hope relations will develop positively in all areas,“ added Lieberman, who was born in the Soviet Union and spoke to reporters in fluent Russian.
Alluding to Israeli concerns about Russian ties with Iran, Lieberman welcomed an assurance by Lavrov that Russia would only sell weapons in the Middle East if there was no risk of upsetting the regional “balance“.
“I also agree with Sergei Viktorovich (Lavrov). Any deliveries of arms to any region that changes the balance of power or disturbs stability is impossible,“ Lieberman said.
Lavrov indicated there was progress on a plan long-cherished by Russia -- a member of the international quartet for Middle East peace -- to host a peace conference to bring together Israeli and Palestinian officials.
“We agreed we’ll continue contacts on an expert level to prepare the necessary agenda for calling a Moscow conference,“ Lavrov said.
Lavrov also voiced optimism about US President Barack Obama’s overtures to Iran and the prospects for renewing international talks with the Islamic Republic--an arch-foe of Israel--on its nuclear program.
“We have a really good chance, including due to the position of the new US administration,“ Lavrov said.
Israeli-Russian ties have improved somewhat in recent months.
In a rare step, Russia’s military has also recently bought aerial surveillance drones from an Israeli contractor.
Lieberman is a Russian-speaker born in Soviet-era Moldova and has set improving ties with Russia as one of his priorities under the recently confirmed Israeli regime.