Stories for 2009

Saturday, February 7th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Snow storms and freezing temperatures shutdowns UK

Forecasters have warned of very low temperatures overnight, after snow brought a fifth day of chaos to the UK. Road, rail and air transport was again badly affected, while hundreds of schools were again closed.
Saturday, February 7th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
IMF calls on G20 for more action to combat corrosive crisis

The IMF has urged the Group of Twenty (G-20) industrialized and emerging market countries to take more decisive policy action to combat the corrosive global financial and economic crisis by bolstering demand and cleaning up the financial sector.
Saturday, February 7th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Reviving the damaged financial system

Restoring financial health will require a three-pronged approach, involving the continued provision of ample liquidity and term funding support from central banks, dealing promptly and aggressively with distressed assets, and recapitalizing viable institutions with public funds.
Saturday, February 7th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
UK manufacturing output declined 10% in twelve months

Manufacturing output declined at its fastest rate since 1981 in December, underscoring the fragile state of the UK economy, official figures show. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said it fell 10.2% from a year earlier as recession hit the sector.
Saturday, February 7th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Uruguay's wool industry exports total 282 m USD in 2008

Uruguay's wool industry exports between January 31st 2008 and February 2009 totalled 282 million US dollars which is 10.4% less that the same period a year ago, because of a 13.9% drop in wool sales and an 83.8% reduction in live sheep shipments.
Saturday, February 7th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Uruguay's ruling coalition primary “nasty and foul”

One of Uruguay's ruling coalition presidential hopefuls claimed the primary campaign was turning “nasty” and could leave “deep wounds” plus mistrust and called for a “clean, respectful campaign”. He admitted that he could be the target of an inside boycott.
Friday, February 6th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Colombia's FARC releases last civilian hostage

Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces, FARC, released Thursday the last civilian among a group of 22 so-called political captives held by the rebels. Two Red Cross helicopters were involved in the release of the former lawmaker Sigifredo Lopez, 45, held captive by the drug-funded group for almost seven years.
Friday, February 6th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
FARC committed war crimes and act on paranoiac cowardice

The last civilian hostage to be released by the Colombian rebel group FARC revealed that eleven of his kidnapped peers were killed shot in the back, by the guerrillas in an act of what he described as “paranoiac cowardice”.
Friday, February 6th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
UNESCO calls for preservation of HMS Victory wreck

The head of the United Nations cultural agency today called for the preservation of a British man-o-war sent to the bottom of the English Channel by a storm in 1744 with all hands and, it is said, a sizeable gold treasure.
Friday, February 6th 2009 - 20:00 UTC
Global organizations warn of protectionist “tendencies”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of the world's five leading financial organizations pledged Thursday in Berlin to increase cooperation as part of a joint effort to combat the global economic recession and called on all countries to resist “protectionist tendencies”.