International

• Saturday, October 12th 2013 - 22:08 UTC

  IMF calls for financial markets to be monitored by political supervision

  

  Central banks should be independent in setting monetary policy but they should also be tasked with monitoring financial market stability under political supervision, the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) chief economist said.

• Saturday, October 12th 2013 - 22:03 UTC

  Nobel Peace Prize to anti-chemical weapons polarizes the Syrian conflict

  

  Efforts to eliminate chemical weapons won a Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for the global watchdog trying to destroy Syria's stockpiles of nerve gas and other poisonous agents. By giving its prestigious prize to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the Norwegian Nobel Committee turned the spotlight both on Syria's devastating civil war and on a type of weapon that has horrified nations since World War I.

• Saturday, October 12th 2013 - 10:19 UTC

  Balancing Geological Potential and Political Risk: Interview with Tony Hayward

  

  From Kurdistan to Somaliland, for independent oil companies, getting your hands on new exploration acreage where both technical risk and political risk are low is impossible. Exploring for oil and gas in new frontiers is all about striking the right balance between geological potential and political risk. Take it from Anglo-Turkish Genel Energy, the largest producer in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), where it seems nothing can shake investor confidence right now.

• Friday, October 11th 2013 - 18:24 UTC

  Three million Spaniards living in extreme poverty, and becoming chronic says Caritas

  

  The number of Spaniards living in severe poverty has doubled to 3 million since the economic crisis erupted in 2008, according to a report released by the Caritas charity, taking as poverty line those who live on less than 307 €euros (414 dollars) a month.

• Friday, October 11th 2013 - 18:19 UTC

  WHO calls for the phase out of mercury fever-thermometers by 2020

  

  The World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Care without Harm organisation have joined forces to launch a new initiative to get mercury removed from all medical measuring devices by 2020.

• Friday, October 11th 2013 - 13:08 UTC

  HMS Lancaster seizes in the Caribbean cocaine and cannabis worth £58 million street-value

  

  Royal Navy HMS Lancaster has seized cannabis and cocaine with a street value of nearly £58 million while on operations in the Caribbean. The seizure took place over two incidents which came just days after each other, with Lancaster recovering cocaine weighing over 400 kilograms and almost 1.2 tons of marijuana.

• Friday, October 11th 2013 - 13:03 UTC

  FIFA investigator meets English officials on frustrated 2018 World Cup bid

  

  Senior officials from the England team which bid to host the 2018 World Cup are meeting a lawyer appointed by FIFA to investigate allegations of wrong-doping surrounding the voting process.

• Friday, October 11th 2013 - 12:57 UTC

  Gibraltar Under-19 football team makes history as they compete for European Qualifier

  

  Gibraltar Under-19 national football squad left the Rock en route to be the first team representing Gibraltar in a European Championship Qualifier. The first stop is in Bulgaria, where the Gibraltar players will prepare with a friendly against the Bulgarian national team. From there, they will travel to the Czech Republic to compete at the European Championships.

• Friday, October 11th 2013 - 12:51 UTC

  Over six million ticket requests for 2014 World Cup, with 70% from Brazil

  

  A total of 6,164,682 requests for tickets for the 2014 FIFA World Cup had been received when the initial application period ended on Thursday 10 October 2013, of which 70.86% were from Brazil, with the remaining 29.14% from the rest of the world.

• Friday, October 11th 2013 - 10:14 UTC

  Gibraltar accuses Spain of incitement to racial hatred and calls for ad hoc talks

  

  Gibraltar accused Spain before the United Nations Fourth Committee of incitement to racial hatred and called for reasonable dialogue urging the start of ‘ad hoc’ talks to resolve issues Madrid has been expressing concern over.