International

• Tuesday, February 18th 2014 - 05:34 UTC

  Hague in Brazil for a three-day visit; includes the Manaus stadium where England will play its first Cup match

  

  Foreign Secretary William Hague, currently on a three-day visit to Brazil, joined on Tuesday with England manager Roy Hodgson in Manaus to promote the Foreign Office’s ‘Be on the Ball’ campaign and FCO's preparations for World Cup 2014.

• Monday, February 17th 2014 - 09:57 UTC

  FIFA will conduct surprise doping tests of all World Cup players

  

  FIFA is expected to conduct surprise doping tests of all World Cup players at least once beginning in March, setting up biological passports to determine possible irregularities in blood and urine samples. FIFA chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak said all teams and players should be tested unannounced between March 1 and the World Cup opener in June.

• Monday, February 17th 2014 - 09:27 UTC

  Italy expected to have a new centre-left government with maverick mayor Renzi

  

  Italian President Giorgio Napolitano summoned Matteo Renzi to a meeting on Monday at which he is expected to ask the centre-left leader to form a government that must overhaul one of the most troubled economies in the Euro zone.

• Monday, February 17th 2014 - 09:23 UTC

  Euro-zone growth still fragile but stronger than expected at the end of 2013

  

  Economic growth across the Euro-zone was stronger than expected at the end of 2013, according to official figures, raising hopes the recovery is gaining a foothold. Gross domestic product grew by 0.3% in the October-December period from the previous quarter, said Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office. That amounts to an annualized rate of about 1.2 %.

• Monday, February 17th 2014 - 09:21 UTC

  Hague underlines close links with Colombia; meets President Santos Monday

  

  UK Foreign Secretary William Hague was received on Sunday in Cartagena by Colombian Foreign minister María Angeles Holguín and on Monday is scheduled to meet with Juan Manuel Santos at the Palacio Nariño, seat of the Executive in Bogotá. Mr. Hague on Monday evening will be flying to Brazil.

• Monday, February 17th 2014 - 09:03 UTC

  Argentina vs hedge funds: second chapter of appeal before the US Supreme Court

  

  The Argentine government will appeal on Monday before the US Supreme Court for the second time against the hedge funds claim. The Supreme Court is the last judiciary step in the dispute.

• Monday, February 17th 2014 - 07:49 UTC

  Argentina/Brazil diplomatic incident almost triggers another Mercosur stall

  

  In what was described as a “shameful incident”, Brazil had to retract from statements made by one of its diplomats, a condition demanded by Argentina to continue negotiations for a Mercosur common tariffs reduction proposal which was taking place in Caracas. The incident occurred last week but only came to light over the weekend.

• Saturday, February 15th 2014 - 05:54 UTC

  Despite New Year celebration, China's January inflation remained steady at 2.5%

  

  China's inflation rate remained subdued in January, despite rising food prices during the New Year celebrations. Consumer prices held steady at 2.5% from a year earlier, which was slightly higher than many economists expected.

• Saturday, February 15th 2014 - 05:50 UTC

  Spain's Repsol signs 1.2bn dollars financing deal with Venezuela's PDVSA

  

  Repsol signed a financing deal Friday with Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA that calls for the Spanish energy major to invest 1.2 billion dollars to boost the output of the companies' Petroquiriquire joint venture.

• Friday, February 14th 2014 - 21:16 UTC

  Russia welcomes Gibraltar to the UEFA family

  

  Pravda, Russia’s political newspaper associated with the Communist Party, welcomed Gibraltar into UEFA’s family in an article publish online on Thursday.