International

• Tuesday, November 6th 2012 - 06:25 UTC

  Spain breaks another unemployment record in October; 52% for the under 25

  

  The number of job seekers in Spain soared to the highest level in at least 16 years in October, the Labour Ministry reported on Monday. As recession deepens the number of officially unemployed jumped by 128,242 people in October which means about 4.83m people were jobless at the end of last month, an increase of 2.7% on September.

• Tuesday, November 6th 2012 - 06:20 UTC

  US group prepares to take over debt-laden Spanish chain NH Hotels

  

  Spain's NH Hoteles has received a preliminary offer from US private equity firm KKR to buy bonds that can be converted into shares of the debt-laden hotel chain. NH Hoteles, Europe's third largest business hotel operator based on rooms, has long been tipped as a private equity target given its large debt and that of its savings bank shareholders, which together own nearly a third of the firm.

• Tuesday, November 6th 2012 - 06:17 UTC

  China PM family’s alleged fortune triggers debate on “sunshine law” for Beijing leaders

  

  China’s communist party leadership has launched a probe into the alleged family wealth of Wen Jiabao at the premier's request, according to sources. In a letter submitted to the Politburo Standing Committee, the party's top decision-making body of which the premier is also a member, Wen asked for a formal inquiry into claims made by The New York Times.

• Tuesday, November 6th 2012 - 00:40 UTC

  Landmark case in Australia rules against S&P for “misleading and deceptive” products

  

  Standard & Poor's lost a landmark case in Australia over top-flight ratings given to financial products that collapsed in the build-up to the 2008 global economic crisis. The Federal Court of Australia on Monday ruled that S&P AAA rating of constant proportion debt obligation notes created by banking giant ABN AMRO and sold to the councils of 13 Australian towns had been “misleading and deceptive”.

• Monday, November 5th 2012 - 19:38 UTC

  Son of Falklands’ war hero will take command of British troops in Afghanistan

  

  The son of Falkland Islands war hero Colonel ‘H’ Jones is to take command of Britain’s 9.000 troops in Afghanistan, reports the Daily Mail. Brigadier Rupert Jones was 13 when his father died during a one-man charge on an Argentine trench in the Battle of Goose Green in 1982, for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

• Monday, November 5th 2012 - 13:45 UTC

  G20 puts the US ‘fiscal cliff’ as the biggest short term threat to global growth

  

  The leading world economies pressed the United States on Sunday to act decisively to avert a rush of spending cuts and tax hikes, warning that the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ is the biggest short-term threat to global growth.

• Monday, November 5th 2012 - 13:02 UTC

  Argentina calls on G20 for global action against ‘predatory’ actions from ‘vulture funds’

  

  Argentine Economy Minister Hernán Lorenzino called for developed countries to set limits to ‘vulture funds’ and credit rating agencies as “promoters of the global crisis,” as he addressed the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in Mexico on Sunday.

• Monday, November 5th 2012 - 12:46 UTC

  World’s most expensive palatial house in London on the market for 100 million pounds

  

  The world's most expensive four-storey palatial house, in London's plush neighborhood has gone on the market at a staggering 100 million pounds. One Cornwall Terrace is a Grade 1 listed mansion overlooking Regent's Park in London.

• Sunday, November 4th 2012 - 06:40 UTC

  Argentina private sector increasingly isolated from foreign money markets

  

  Earlier in the week Standard & Poor’s ratings services lowered to ‘B-’ from ‘B’ its unsolicited long-term sovereign credit rating on Argentina and on Friday the ratings agency said it is taking a similar rating actions on four Argentine banks and 16 Argentine corporations.

• Sunday, November 4th 2012 - 06:33 UTC

  Will China’s next president, Xi Jinping, bring about change?

  

  By Gwynne Dyer - By the end of November 6, we will know who will be the president of the United States for the next four years. We already know who will be the leader of China for the next 10 years, although Xi Jinping will not be officially installed in power until a few days later. But some would argue that that is the more important event.