International

• Thursday, July 5th 2012 - 22:22 UTC

  ECB lowers interest to record low 0.75%; pushes banks to lend by cutting overnight rate to zero

  

  The European Central Bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point Thursday to a record low 0.75% to try to help ease Europe’s financial crisis, boost its sagging economy and restore confidence.

• Thursday, July 5th 2012 - 22:20 UTC

  China cuts interest rate a week ahead of next week’s release of second quarter stats

  

  China's central bank cut interest rates for the second time in two months to bolster an economy widely expected to record its sixth successive slide in growth in April-June.

• Thursday, July 5th 2012 - 18:07 UTC

  Drastic cut in UK Armed forces manpower preparing for “the Army of the future”

  

  UK’s Defence Secretary Philip Hammond announced that 17 units are to be axed from the British army as part of sweeping reforms that will reduce its overall strength by 20.000 posts.

• Thursday, July 5th 2012 - 07:47 UTC

  Homes, offices and shops to be built at London’s iconic Battersea power station

  

  A consortium led by Malaysia's SP Setia Bhd has bought London's iconic Battersea power station for 400 million pounds ($623 million) and will redevelop the site into homes, offices and shops, the agents managing the sale said.

• Thursday, July 5th 2012 - 07:17 UTC

  Puricelli in China praises the Hong Kong model as a good precedent for Malvinas

  

  Argentine Defence Minister Arturo Puricelli currently on a visit to Beijing underlined defence cooperation with China and said the “Hong Kong model” was a significant precedent for “the Malvinas cause”.

• Wednesday, July 4th 2012 - 23:00 UTC

  Libor rate manipulation: Barclays’ former CEO does not convince PMs and points to Bank of England

  

  British banker Bob Diamond has revealed that one of his big fears during the 2008 global credit crisis was that his bank, Barclays, would be taken over by the British government.

• Wednesday, July 4th 2012 - 22:39 UTC

  Discovery of the Higgs boson a key to open the mysteries of the universe

  

  Scientists at Europe's CERN research centre have found a new subatomic particle, a basic building block of the universe, which appears to be the boson imagined and named half a century ago by theoretical physicist Peter Higgs.

• Wednesday, July 4th 2012 - 22:26 UTC

  Spanish court opens fraud case against Banka former executives

  

  A Spanish court opened a fraud case against former executives of lender Bankia on Wednesday amid mounting public anger against the state-rescued bank.

• Wednesday, July 4th 2012 - 22:13 UTC

  South Korea announces plans to start whaling for “scientific research”

  

  South Korea said on Wednesday that it planned to start whaling through a loophole that allows the killing of whales for scientific research, following the lead of Japan's controversial expeditions.

• Wednesday, July 4th 2012 - 21:23 UTC

  Buenos Aires to host South America Seatrade cruise convention next September

  

  The second Seatrade South America Cruise Convention is scheduled to take place at the Quinquela Martin Cruise Terminal, Buenos Aires, Argentina next September 10-11. The event is organised in close partnership with the host port and Inprotur, the Argentine National Institute of Tourism Promotion.