International

• Thursday, July 12th 2012 - 19:59 UTC

  Gibraltar says UK/Spain bilateralism is “dead and will never ever be revived”

  

  Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has declared that UK-Spain bilateralism is “dead and will never ever be revived under any circumstances” regarding the Rock’s future.

• Thursday, July 12th 2012 - 19:36 UTC

  Rockhopper signs a billion dollars deal to develop Falklands’ oil discovery

  

  Britain's Premier Oil announced on Thursday a 1 billion dollars deal to farm in and develop Rockhopper Exploration oil and gas discoveries in the Falkland Islands.

• Thursday, July 12th 2012 - 07:00 UTC

  Canada protests Bolivian decision to revoke licence to mine silver deposits

  

  Canadian company is protesting Bolivia's decision to revoke its licence to mine a rich silver deposit in the country and nationalize the project.

• Thursday, July 12th 2012 - 06:57 UTC

  China cuts retail fuel prices 5%, the third cut in two months

  

  China, the world's second biggest consumer of fuel, has cut retail oil prices by about 5% with immediate effect. This is the third cut in two months, and some analysts say could be an attempt to increase fuel consumption. Demand for oil fell for the first time in three years in April.

• Wednesday, July 11th 2012 - 22:56 UTC

  'Euroleaf', trademark for the strict EU organic farming standards

  

  The “Euro-leaf” EU organic logo was introduced on 1 July 2010, but in order to help operators adapt to the new rules, and to avoid waste of existing packaging, a 2-year transition period was allowed before it was compulsory on all products.

• Wednesday, July 11th 2012 - 22:33 UTC

  ILO anticipates further job losses in Euro-zone because of austerity measures

  

  The Euro-zone could lose 4.5 million more jobs in the next four years unless the region shifts away from austerity, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has warned. That rise would take unemployment in the 17-nation bloc to 22 million.

• Wednesday, July 11th 2012 - 22:28 UTC

  Rajoy raises VAT to 21% and drastically cuts benefits and other perks

  

  Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced a swathe of new taxes and spending cuts designed to slash 65 billion Euros from the budget deficit by 2014 as recession-plagued Spain struggles to meet tough targets agreed with Europe.

• Wednesday, July 11th 2012 - 22:16 UTC

  Germany expected to grow 1.9% in 2013 because of Euro crisis

  

  Germany's DIW economic research institute slashed its 2013 forecast for Europe's largest economy by 0.5 percentage points to 1.9% on Wednesday, saying the Euro zone debt crisis would have a bigger impact than it had originally expected.

• Wednesday, July 11th 2012 - 22:09 UTC

  OECD/FAO anticipate promising future for farm-commodity prices

  

  World farm commodity prices will edge higher in the next decade, and oilseeds are set to outperform wheat and other cereals, both trends fuelled by demand in emerging economies, the OECD said on Wednesday, presenting a joint report with the UN's food agency FAO.

• Wednesday, July 11th 2012 - 19:57 UTC

  German proposal: richest citizens should pay more taxes or loan long term to governments

  

  A leading German economic research institute has come up with one way to help countries involved in the euro crisis pay down their sovereign debt: get the wealthiest citizens to pay higher taxes, or force them to loan money to their governments.