International

• Monday, May 14th 2012 - 05:31 UTC

  Fuel costs and Spanish recession hit British Airways-Iberia with mounting losses

  

  Rising fuel costs and the impact of Spain’s economic crisis left the owner of British Airways and Iberia nursing big quarterly losses. International Airlines Group was also hit by industrial action by pilots at Iberia as it recorded losses of 263 million Euros for the three months to March 31, against a deficit of 47 million Euros a year earlier.

• Monday, May 14th 2012 - 05:26 UTC

  Queen Sofia attends “on private capacity” Coronation celebration in London

  

  The Spanish Government formally protested its “displeasure and discomfort” over the state visit of the Earl of Wessex to Gibraltar next month. But Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Garcia-Margallo nonetheless confirmed that the Spanish Queen Sofia will attend the May 18, 60th anniversary of the Coronation celebration in London, but “in a private capacity”.

• Monday, May 14th 2012 - 05:08 UTC

  Huge garbage patch in north Pacific is creating changes in the ocean food web

  

  In a part of the ocean known as the North Pacific Gyre, human-produced plastic has increased 100-fold over the past 40 years, according to a new study. This is the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is not an actual floating island of garbage, but which is filled with floating bits of plastic, often fingernail-sized, mostly from the US west coast and from the east coast of Asia.

• Monday, May 14th 2012 - 05:03 UTC

  German opposition wins in the most populous state and finds their “SPD Angela”

  

  Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives suffered a crushing defeat on Sunday in an election in Germany’s most populous state, a result which could embolden the left opposition to step up attacks on her European austerity policies.

• Monday, May 14th 2012 - 05:00 UTC

  Town in Kent celebrates 250th anniversary of first recording of ‘sandwich’

  

  When John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, ordered beef served between slices of bread about 250 years ago he probably did not think his request would become a global convenience meal.

• Monday, May 14th 2012 - 03:49 UTC

  Latam and Asia-Pacific plan closer; bilateral trade expanding 20% annually

  

  Fast-growing trade and investment between the Asia-Pacific area and Latin America and the Caribbean have transformed the two regions into powerful motors for the world economy, with two-way trade hitting 442 billion dollars last year. The time is right to deepen cooperation so as to ensure future growth and prosperity, according to a new study.

• Saturday, May 12th 2012 - 09:21 UTC

  Argentina/Spain dispute moves from oil corporation to too quality hams

  

  Just days after finalizing the hostile takeover of Spanish-owned oil and gas company YPF, the Argentine government got even more hostile, freezing imports of Spain’s signature delicacy: ham.

• Saturday, May 12th 2012 - 09:17 UTC

  Top trade officials invite Brazilian companies to invest in East Germany

  

  A top visiting German trade official appealed to Brazilian companies Thursday to invest in Europe's largest economy, particularly in the former East Germany taking advantage of the country’s know-how.

• Friday, May 11th 2012 - 21:43 UTC

  Hague describes Chile as one of UK’s “greatest friends in the region”

  

  UK Foreign Secretary William Hague praised Chile during a meeting in London with his peer Alfredo Moreno to discuss a range of issues on which the two countries can work together.

• Friday, May 11th 2012 - 21:10 UTC

  Spain in another clean-up of its financial system hoping to restore confidence

  

  Spain told its banks on Friday to set aside another 30 billion Euros to cover potential losses on real estate and ordered an independent audit of their debts, an effort to restore confidence in a sector that is at the heart of the country's financial crisis.