Stories for February 2010

Monday, February 8th 2010 - 04:47 UTC
Gibraltar celebrates 25th anniversary of frontier opening with Spain

Gibraltar Chief Minister Peter Caruana declared that the Tripartite Forum (Gib., UK, Spain) must be consolidated as the vehicle for cross-border dialogue so that its existence is not dependent on a change of Government in either Spain or Gibraltar.
Monday, February 8th 2010 - 02:14 UTC
Argentina announces completion of third nuclear plant by end of the year

Argentina will complete work on its third nuclear power plant by the end of the year, Planning Minister Julio De Vido said at a press conference. Last April, De Vido said work on the plant, called Atucha II, wouldn't be finished until the first or second quarter of 2011.
Monday, February 8th 2010 - 02:11 UTC
Australia to supply 60 billion USD of coal to China in 20-year period

Australian company Resourcehouse Ltd. announced Saturday that it had struck a 60 billion US dollars, 20-year agreement to supply coal to China Power International Development Ltd., calling it Australia's biggest export contract.
Monday, February 8th 2010 - 02:07 UTC
Mujica calls on followers to build a better society and not collect bills from the past

Uruguay’s president elect Jose Pepe Mujica called on militants and followers “to meditate, to think” about the motives for “the cause, colours and commitments” of the catch-all coalition which under his leadership will be repeating another five years of government.
Monday, February 8th 2010 - 02:04 UTC
Brazil’s middle class is half the population, but destitute remain at 40%

The Brazilian middle class has grown sustainedly since 2003, when President Lula da Silva first took office and now represents almost half of the country’s population according to a report from the Getulio Vargas foundation released over the weekend.
Monday, February 8th 2010 - 02:00 UTC
Former IMF economist has UK in the same bag as Greece, Portugal and Spain

Britain should be seen in the same category of countries as Greece, Portugal and Spain, who are facing severe debt problems, a leading economist has said. Ex-IMF chief economist Simon Johnson, also described the G7 group of leading economies as “fundamentally useless”.
Monday, February 8th 2010 - 01:58 UTC
Bank of England to continue buying corporate bonds but with Treasury bills

The Bank of England will continue to buy up corporate bonds despite calling a halt to its Quantitative Easing programme, it has emerged. George Trefgarne from the Centre for Policy Studies highlighted the development in an interview with Sky's Jeff Randall Live programme.
Monday, February 8th 2010 - 01:56 UTC
US jobless rate down to 9.7% in January, five month low

The jobless rate in the US has dropped to 9.7%, marking a five-month low. The new figures suggest the labour market is improving, despite employers unexpectedly cutting 20,000 jobs in January.
Monday, February 8th 2010 - 01:52 UTC
Lula da Silva’s party fearful of “Brazilian sub-imperialism” and arrogance

Brazil “sub-imperialism”, the arrogance of Brazilian businessmen and a more left wing approach for a future government of the ruling Workers Party, PT, are some of the points of the document to be considered next week at the party’s convention that must nominate the candidate for October’s presidential campaign and supposedly the heir of Lula da Silva.
Sunday, February 7th 2010 - 22:11 UTC
Falkland Islands de-mining pilot project and the challenge of full clearance

As a signatory to the Ottawa Convention, the United Kingdom is required under International Humanitarian Law to remove and destroy all anti-personnel landmines on its sovereign territory. About 20,000 landmines remain within clearly fenced and marked off areas on the Falkland Islands as a result of the 1982 conflict; while not all of these are anti-personnel mines, the United Kingdom is obliged to clear all the mined areas across both East and West Falklands under the Ottawa Convention.