The conveyor belt leading to the Lafarge cement plant. Photograph: Alam Beg Imtiaz/Interspeed/Lafarge Four years after operations started Lafarge’s gigantic limestone mine in Meghalaya state, north-east India, is still at a standstill, pending a decision by India’s Supreme Court. In... 

BP says it has completed its ‘static kill’ operation to plug the leaking Deepwater Horizon well off the Louisiana coast. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP Barack Obama today declared the US’s largest and most politically embarrassing oil spill near an end as BP said it had reached... 

A big increase in the building of new family homes is envisaged by Policy Exchange, which has close links to the Conservative leadership. Photograph: Chris Ison/PA Britain needs a massive house-building programme to stabilise property prices – which could be promoted by allowing villages to... 

David Miliband said there was a ‘big difference between straight-talking and being a loudmouth’. Photograph: Graeme Robertson David Cameron was today accused of being a “loudmouth” by David Miliband, the former foreign secretary and Labour leadership contender, over...