Mosley survives vote to stay on at FIA

Against all expectations, Max Mosley is to remain in his post as President of Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motor sport's governing body. This morning, in Paris, he managed to defeat a vote of no confidence that had been brought against him following the News of the World "sting" that showed him taking part in a sado-masochistic, possibly Nazi-themed orgy with five call-girls.

In a secret ballot of the 222 motoring clubs that make up the FIA, the vote went 103 for, 55 against, with seven abstentions and four invalid. But not everyone was happy - the German motoring federation immediately announced it was breaking off cooperation with the FIA.

Many of the leading figures in the sport, among them Bernie Ecclestone and Sir Jackie Stewart, will be disappointed. They had called for Mosley, the son of the fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, to stand down after his tryst with the call-girls was revealed in March. A video showed Mosley arriving at a London apartment and then engaging in various sex acts with several women, at least one in a prisoner's uniform, while also speaking German.

But Mosley, 68, was adamant that his private life was his own affair and no tabloid report was going to run him out office. He will now remain president until October 2009 when his fourth consecutive term in office ends.