Campaigners and children’s charities have welcomed the government’s announcement that it is to close the family wing of Yarl’s Wood immigration centre. Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA The family wing of Yarl’s Wood immigration centre is to be closed as part of government plans to end... 

Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott shake hands before an election debate in Canberra. Photograph: Alan Porritt/AFP/Getty Images It might be a hotly contested campaign in serious economic and environmental times, but Australia’s federal election has never strayed far from the absurd. In the... 

The China Investment Fund has been busy raising funds. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters The Chinese government fund represented by Kenny Huang has spent the past fortnight raising precisely the amount of cash required to finance a bid for Liverpool. Sources have confirmed to Digger that the... 

Vessels working over teh Deepwater Horizon oil spill site. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images BP will have to wait a few more days before declaring its Deepwater Horizon well permanently sealed because a tropical storm may be heading for the Gulf of Mexico. The company suspended the drilling...