International

• Saturday, July 13th 2013 - 15:57 UTC

  Francis sweeping reforms to Vatican legal system include from child abuse to money laundering

  

  Pope Francis is introducing changes to the Vatican legal system and has announced reforms on laws governing child abuse to penalties for staff who leak confidential information. The latest overhaul of the Holy See comes after years of scandals which have damaged the image of the Catholic Church.

• Saturday, July 13th 2013 - 13:55 UTC

  UK confirms policy of no support for World Bank and IADB loans to Argentina

  

  UK Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening has confirmed that due to recent actions by the Argentine government she is no longer confident that further investments in Argentina would be consistent with the objectives she laid out in February this year, in an answer to a House of Commons Written Parliamentary Question.

• Friday, July 12th 2013 - 21:06 UTC

  Five-time champion Fangio Formula 1 Mercedes 196 auctioned for £ 19.6 million

  

  Automotive history was made at the Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale on Friday when the car that took five-time champion Juan Manuel Fangio to the second of his Formula 1 world titles achieved a record-breaking figure of £19,601,500 (US$29,650,095, €22,701,864).

• Friday, July 12th 2013 - 08:08 UTC

  World banks lining up submissions for the nationalized 39% holding in Lloyds

  

  Top banks are putting their submissions to the UK Treasury to run a potential £20bn sale of the nationalised part of Lloyds Bank. Banks have until Monday to make their pitch to handle the sell-off of the government's 39% holding in Lloyds, with the sale of RBS, which is 81% owned by the taxpayer, to come later.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 07:22 UTC

  Falklands: Ambassador Castro renews sovereignty claims and blasts the US for spying

  

  Argentine ambassador to the United Kingdom Alicia Castro renewed Argentina’s sovereignty claims over the Falkland Islands and put the Edward Snowden spy row on London’s table: “We are free nations that neither need nor want to be spied on,” Castro warned.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 07:04 UTC

  China blesses Taiwan economic accords if ‘one-China’ policy is respected

  

  China accepts that Taiwan signs economic cooperation agreements with other countries as long as they are not political and those countries do not interfere with the ‘one China policy’ which considers the island a province part of the nation, and not two nations as defended by Taipei.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 06:58 UTC

  One third of world’s population benefits from effective tobacco control measure

  

  At 2.3 billion, the number of people worldwide covered by at least one life-saving measure to limit tobacco use has more than doubled in the last five years, according to the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2013. The number of people covered by bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, the focus of this year’s report, increased by almost 400 million people residing mainly in low- and middle-income countries.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 06:53 UTC

  Time for China to become more Brazilian

  

  By Markus Jaeger (*) - What could China possibly learn from Brazil, economically? After all, real GDP growth in Brazil averaged 2.75% annually over the past three decades, compared to 10% in China. Moreover, Brazil’s consumption-oriented growth model is about to exhaust itself, while China’s investment-focussed strategy continues to generate high, if somewhat diminished economic growth.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 06:43 UTC

  IMF: US pull-back from stimulus could trigger reversal in capital flows and hurt developing countries

  

  The International Monetary Fund trimmed its global growth forecast for the fifth time since early last year due to a slowdown in emerging economies and the woes in recession-struck Europe. In its mid-year health check of the world economy, IMF also warned global growth could slow further if the pull-back from massive monetary stimulus in the United States triggers reversals in capital flows and crimps growth in developing countries.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 06:34 UTC

  China’s June fall in exports and imports anticipate grim outlook for world trade

  

  China has warned of a grim outlook for trade as the world's second-largest economy surprised financial markets by reporting a fall in exports and imports when both had been expected to rise. The June data showed that exports fell 3.1% from a year earlier and imports dropped 0.7%, according to customs officials.