International

• Tuesday, September 16th 2014 - 05:57 UTC

  VisitBritain: UK to refund cost of visa for Chinese tourists in organized groups

  

  British Chancellor George Osborne has announced plans to refund the cost of up to 25,000 visas for Chinese tourists in an attempt to attract more visits to the UK. It was one of a series of measures announced at an economic summit in London, attended by Chinese vice premier Ma Kai.

• Tuesday, September 16th 2014 - 05:50 UTC

  HSBC reached 550m agreement with US banking regulators

  

  HSBC Holdings will pay 550 million dollars to resolve a US regulator's claims that the British bank made false representations in selling mortgage bonds to the federal mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the financial crisis.

• Tuesday, September 16th 2014 - 05:43 UTC

  Giant observation tower in the Amazon to monitor climate change

  

  Construction has begun on a giant observation tower in the heart of the Amazon basin to monitor climate change. The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory is expected to rise 325m from the ground.

• Tuesday, September 16th 2014 - 05:20 UTC

  Santander new chairwoman confirms full control of the Brazil branch

  

  Spanish banking giant Santander under its new executive chairperson Ana Botin announced on Monday the purchase of the remaining 25% of Banco Santander Brasil which it did not already own.

• Tuesday, September 16th 2014 - 05:10 UTC

  Blatter has a challenger for next year's FIFA president election: Champagne

  

  Former FIFA official Jerome Champagne has formally announced that he will stand against incumbent Sepp Blatter in next year's election for president of the world soccer body.

• Tuesday, September 16th 2014 - 05:04 UTC

  White House says it prefers the UK to remain “strong, robust and united”

  

  The White House weighed in carefully on the Scottish independence referendum, saying Washington would respect the outcome of the vote but would prefer the United Kingdom to remain “strong, robust and united.”

• Tuesday, September 16th 2014 - 03:03 UTC

  Leading Scottish business group calls for unity the day after the referendum

  

  A leading Scottish business group has called for the country to unite “to drive Scotland forward”, whatever the result of the independence referendum. The Scottish Chambers of Commerce said the outcome would leave “a substantial number” of people disappointed.

• Tuesday, September 16th 2014 - 02:54 UTC

  Gibraltar on National Day celebration calls on QE II to again visit the Rock

  

  Sixty years after her last visit the Chief Minister has called on Queen Elizabeth II to visit Gibraltar. He did so in a dramatic call during his National day speech. Fabian Picardo was flanked on stage by Gibraltar Government Ministers, Opposition MPs and a contingent of visiting British MPs and MEPs.

• Tuesday, September 16th 2014 - 02:42 UTC

  US insists with Argentina it does not support the UN sovereign debt debate

  

  As Argentine President Cristina Fernandez readies for her annual trip to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly, US interim ambassador in Buenos Aires Kevin Sullivan ratified that Washington will not back the UN sovereign debt resolution sparked by Argentina’s legal battle with its holdout creditors.

• Monday, September 15th 2014 - 06:23 UTC

  Argentina confirms payment to bondholders at the end of September

  

  Argentina will pay holders of its restructured sovereign debt, thanks to a bill passed by its Congress last week despite a US court ruling, the country's economy minister told a local radio show on Sunday.