Stories for December 22nd 2008

Monday, December 22nd 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Beijing and Taipei warm up to face financial downturn

A senior Chinese official has pledged that China will consider any request for assistance from Taiwan during the current global financial downturn.
Monday, December 22nd 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Leading global warming experts join Obama's cabinet

US President-elect Barack Obama has nominated two leading global warming specialists for key science posts in his administration. Harvard physicist John Holdren will be Mr Obama's scientific adviser while marine biologist Jane Lubchenco will head the US oceanic research body.
Monday, December 22nd 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Barclays: Bankers should apologize to regain trust

The credit crunch will last for up to two more years, the boss of Britain's Barclays Bank believes. John Varley forecast that consumers and businesses would struggle to access credit for between one and two more years. He added that banks should apologise to customers to regain their trust.
Monday, December 22nd 2008 - 20:00 UTC
EC warns about temptation of protectionism

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso admitted that the current global financial downturn implies a growing risk of increasing protectionism and other forms of limits to migratory and economic policies.
Monday, December 22nd 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Brazil has injected 164 billion US dollars to prop economy

The Brazilian government has injected an estimated 164 billion US dollars, mostly to banks and corporations, since the beginning of the financial downturn, according to the official news agency.
Monday, December 22nd 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Spanish companies secure Gibraltar PW contracts

Chief Minister Peter Caruana has declared that the Gibraltar Government has adjudicated public works contracts to Spanish companies worth an estimated 200 million Euros.

Mr Caruana was speaking at a meeting of Costa del Sol socialists in Malaga where he was the guest of Spain's former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Bernardino Leon, widely credited with being one of the intellectual instigators of the (UK, Spain, Gibraltar) Tripartite Forum.
Monday, December 22nd 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Rolls-Royce awarded engine contract for Sea King helicopters

Rolls-Royce has been awarded a £258 million engine contract for the UK's fleet of Royal Navy and Royal Air Force Sea King helicopters over the next 10 years. One of them is permanently based in the Falkland Islands.
Monday, December 22nd 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Torres del Paine feeling global pinch and lack of promotion

Chile's renowned Torres del Paine national park in Patagonia is also suffering the consequences of the global slowdown according to visitors numbers released by the regional Forestry and Parks Department, Conaf.
Monday, December 22nd 2008 - 20:00 UTC
China reacts to negative Nov: fifth rate cut in 3 months

China cut interest rates for a fifth time in three months on Monday in its latest efforts to rev up the economy. The one-year lending rate will drop by 0.27 percentage points to 5.31% and the deposit rate by the same amount to 2.25%, the People's Bank of China said on its Web site.
Monday, December 22nd 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Paraguay denies arrival of Venezuelan illiteracy experts

Paraguay does not need teachers from other countries to fight illiteracy in the country said on Monday the country's Education and Culture minister Horacio Galeano Perrone, during an interview with a local station in Asunción, the capital.