International

• Wednesday, July 31st 2013 - 16:17 UTC

  Vatican bank opens its books to comply with ‘honest and transparent’ promise

  

  The Vatican bank opened its web site www.ior.va on Wednesday as it steps up efforts to improve its tarnished image after a succession of financial scandals and repeated criticisms of its lack of transparency.

• Wednesday, July 31st 2013 - 05:54 UTC

  FAO calls for withdrawal of highly hazardous pesticides in developing countries

  

  The tragic incident in Bihar, India, where 23 school children died after eating a school meal contaminated with monocrotophos, is an important reminder to speed up the withdrawal of highly hazardous pesticides from markets in developing countries, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, July 31st 2013 - 05:49 UTC

  In Mexico, Latam second largest economy over half the are catalogued as poor

  

  Poverty in Mexico, including extreme cases, decreased slightly between 2010 and 2012, reported the National Council for Evaluation of Social Development Policy. Official stats show that poverty in Mexico, Latam’ second largest economy went from 46.1% of the population in 2010 to 45.5% in 2012, while extreme poverty fell from 11.3% to 9.8%.

• Wednesday, July 31st 2013 - 05:43 UTC

  Assange criticizes Pte Manning’s conviction as a ‘dangerous precedent”

  

  Julian Assange, founder of the anti-secrecy organisation Wikileaks, has said the conviction of US Army Private Bradley Manning on spying charges is a “dangerous precedent”.

• Wednesday, July 31st 2013 - 05:26 UTC

  Canadian town evicts oil sands companies that helped it grow

  

  The Canadian town of Fort McMurray, population 76,000, is the heart of Alberta's oil sands largesse--but the town is bursting at its seams with nowhere to expand because the land surrounding it is owned by oil companies.

• Wednesday, July 31st 2013 - 05:12 UTC

  Insulza meets Hague and presents report on the Drug Problem in the Americas at Chatham House

  

  Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, on Tuesday presented in London the Report on the Drug Problem in the Americas during a forum organized by Chatham House in which political authorities and experts in the issue took part.

• Wednesday, July 31st 2013 - 05:05 UTC

  UK plans to expand education-exports industry and attract 90.000 extra overseas university students by 2018

  

  An ambitious strategy to expand United Kingdom’s education exports industry – revealed for the first time as worth £17.5 billion to the economy – has been published.

• Wednesday, July 31st 2013 - 04:56 UTC

  Spain warns Hague that it will continue to enforce strict Gibraltar border checks

  

  Foreign Affairs minister José Manuel García-Margallo has told his UK counterpart, William Hague that Spain will continue to enforce strict Gibraltar border checks “whenever necessary” because this was in line with Madrid’s EU obligations and that Guardia Civil officers were searching for contraband.

• Tuesday, July 30th 2013 - 02:40 UTC

  Falklands at C24: ‘Alejandro Betts misrepresents’, says Professor Willets

  

  Mr. Alejandro Betts spoke on 20 June this year at the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation, as a petitioner on the “Falklands (Malvinas) Question.” It has been brought to my attention that his speech included a highly distorted account of my visit to the Islands to observe the referendum on behalf of the South Atlantic Council.

• Tuesday, July 30th 2013 - 02:23 UTC

  EU and China reach an ‘amicable solution’ on solar panel imports

  

  The European Commission says it has reached “an amicable solution” with Beijing in a row over imports of Chinese solar panels. Both sides have agreed a minimum price for the panels, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said.