International

• Saturday, June 9th 2012 - 02:41 UTC

  FAO food price index fell by 4% in May on prospects of good cereal production

  

  United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said global food prices dropped sharply in May due to generally favourable supplies, growing global economic uncertainties and a strengthening of the US dollar.

• Saturday, June 9th 2012 - 00:37 UTC

  Argentina rapidly becoming too expensive for foreign tourists

  

  Argentina is rapidly becoming an expensive country for tourists and evidence of this is the declining number of tourists arriving in the country in the first months of the year while the number of Argentine travelling overseas is soaring, according to Mario Lielman, chair of the Buenos Aires Tourism and Travel Agencies Association.

• Friday, June 8th 2012 - 23:18 UTC

  Environmentalists propose a whales’ sanctuary ring along the American continent

  

  Environment organizations meeting in Panama will demand the creation of a whales’ sanctuary in the south Atlantic and south Pacific, at the coming meeting of the International Whaling Commission.

• Friday, June 8th 2012 - 21:06 UTC

  Fitch downgrades Repsol rating to BBB- on fears of YPF seizure impact

  

  Repsol, the Spanish oil producer whose Argentine unit YPF was nationalized in April, was cut to the lowest investment grade by Fitch Ratings, the first downgrade since reducing dividends to shore up its finances.

• Friday, June 8th 2012 - 20:59 UTC

  Guernsey Bailiff, guest of the Falklands during Liberation commemoration

  

  The Island of Guernsey's Bailiff is to visit the Falkland Islands to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the end of the conflict and the Islands' liberation.

• Friday, June 8th 2012 - 20:51 UTC

  Bank of England stand-by on optimism over a solution to the Euro debt crisis

  

  The Bank of England has resisted injecting further emergency liquidity to the UK economy as optimism over finding a solution to the Euro zone debt crisis grew.

• Friday, June 8th 2012 - 20:48 UTC

  Earl and Countess of Wessex visit Gibraltar to celebrate Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

  

  The Earl and Countess of Wessex – Prince Edward and Sophie - are visiting Gibraltar from Monday to Wednesday of next week as part of Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

• Friday, June 8th 2012 - 20:35 UTC

  Artefacts from controversial 1804 wreck stored in Gibraltar returned to Spain

  

  Archaeological artefacts recovered from a controversial wreck and stored in a warehouse in Gibraltar were handed to Spanish authorities this week. The items were recovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration in 2007 from the wreck of “Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes”, a Spanish galleon that sank off Portugal in 1804.

• Friday, June 8th 2012 - 20:21 UTC

  China lowers key rates and gives banks more flexibility to help boost growth

  

  China has cut its key interest rates for the first time since 2008, in an attempt to boost its slowing growth. The benchmark one-year loan rate was cut by a quarter of one percent to 6.31% while deposit rates were cut from 3.5% to 3.25%.

• Friday, June 8th 2012 - 20:11 UTC

  EU gets tough on border controls to address large-scale immigration

  

  European Union governments would be able to suspend passport-free travel in parts of Europe for as long as two years under regulations proposed on Thursday to address concerns over large-scale immigration.