International

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 04:14 UTC

  In France it’s Hollande or Sarkozy, but eyes are set on hard left/right votes

  

  Socialist presidential frontrunner Francois Hollande appealed to French voters to throw out conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and shun the far right in a final push for working-class votes before Sunday's first round of the election.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 04:03 UTC

  Argentina minimizes impact of Spain’s first retaliatory measures

  

  Argentine President Cristina Fernández minimized Spain’s decision to reduce the bio-diesel imports as a retaliation over the expropriation of YPF and called for “calm” after assuring that Argentina “is in condition to absorb” that production in the domestic market.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 03:56 UTC

  IMF says YPF dispute is a “bilateral affair” and decision of “a sovereign nation”

  

  Argentina managed a first point in the diplomatic dispute with Spain over the nationalization of YPF when the IMF decided to call the conflict a “bilateral affair” and “a decision of a sovereign nation”.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 03:51 UTC

  Brazil will continue to intervene in support of industry and depressing its currency

  

  Brazilian Finance minister Guido Mantega said on Friday that IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde makes a mistake in recommending emerging countries not to intervene in the money exchange markets to counter the strong devaluation of currencies from the rich countries.

• Friday, April 20th 2012 - 21:51 UTC

  Barcelona vs Real Madrid: a derby with 1.5bn dollars on the field

  

  Saturday’s derby between Spain’s top teams Barcelona and Real Madrid is more than a soccer match, not only because it will most probably decide who is the next champ of La Liga but also because the field will see a display of 1.474 billion dollars in players.

• Friday, April 20th 2012 - 21:45 UTC

  Two English, two Spanish and one German in the billion dollars plus clubs league

  

  The piles of cash handed out by Europe’s top tournaments continue to drive team values higher for the best teams on the pitch, according to the latest report from Forbes.

• Friday, April 20th 2012 - 19:20 UTC

  New FMD strain in Egypt; 100.000 cattle infected, no vaccine for SAT2

  

  A new strain of Foot and Mouth Disease, known as SAT2, has broken out in Egypt and is threatening to spread to other areas of northern Africa and the Middle East.

• Friday, April 20th 2012 - 04:44 UTC

  US fully supports IMF in demanding Argentina submits its stats to IMF for review

  

  The US government considers Argentine is obliged to submit its economic statistics to be validated by the IMF, and Washington will support all efforts from the multilateral organization so that the objective can be achieved.

• Friday, April 20th 2012 - 00:24 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez “not concerned” about international reaction to YPF takeover

  

  The government of President Cristina Fernandez is “not concerned” about the escalade of international criticism following the announced nationalization of the oil company YPF, and rules “thinking in Argentina not in Spain or the US”, said two cabinet members.

• Thursday, April 19th 2012 - 22:12 UTC

  London mayoral candidate for the British National party is a Uruguayan national

  

  The British National Party confounded expectations by fielding a Uruguayan national, Carlos Cortiglia, as its candidate for London mayor. Mr Cortiglia moved to the UK in 1989 and has lived and worked in London ever since.