lifestyle leader

-A leadership challenge to Gordon Brown has once again thrown Labour into disarray, just as the party managed to reverse the Tory poll momentum. Who knew British politics could be so fun! (Update: he has survived, again...)

-The president of Iceland, a country on a fast-track to EU accession, has refused to sign off on legislation that would have repaid the UK and Netherlands some $5.5 bn lost in failed 'Icesave' accounts. He has instead decided to put the matter to a referendum. The move seriously jeopardizes Iceland's EU prospects and threatens to further isolate the tiny nation. The economy minister says the referendum decision has effectively put on hold both the country's IMF program and any decision to lift capital controls. Ouch.

-Argentina's president has fired the president of the central bank over his refusal to back a government plan to tap the country's $48 billion reserves to pay off $6.6 bn in debt this year. One problem: Martin Redrado says he won't go! He says the power to fire the central bank chief rests with Congress and he has no plans on going. Further, the man tapped by Fernandez de Kirchner to replace Redrado, former central bank president Mario Blejer, has declined the offer. Blejer resigned in 2002 due to government interference in the bank's independence. Argentina has finally been making progress in negotiations with defaulted creditors who refused the previous government's offer to renegotiate their portion of the $95 bn 2001 debt default, and was aiming to return to international markets this year for the first time in nearly a decade. The president's intervention does little to bolster the confidence Argentina has taken so long to recover.