International

• Wednesday, August 15th 2012 - 23:40 UTC

  World Health Organization praises Australia’s high court ruling on cigarette packaging

  

  The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday it strongly welcomes the landmark decision from Australia’s High Court to dismiss a legal challenge from the tobacco industry, and calls on the rest of the world to follow Australia’s tough stance on tobacco marketing.

• Wednesday, August 15th 2012 - 08:57 UTC

  Standard Chartered reaches agreement with US regulators, pays 340m fine

  

  Standard Chartered has agreed a 340 million dollars settlement with New York regulators that accused it of hiding 250bn of transactions with Iran. The hearing that had been scheduled for Wednesday has now been adjourned.

• Wednesday, August 15th 2012 - 00:50 UTC

  Euro zone contracts 0.2% in Q2; Germany remains strong but exposed to contagion

  

  The Euro zone debt-ravaged economy shrank in the second quarter (after a dismal first) and despite continued German growth which economists said could soon be snuffed out.

• Tuesday, August 14th 2012 - 23:51 UTC

  Sunflower seed production down in Europe because of lack of rainfall

  

  Sunflower seed production in the European Union, Ukraine and Russia will drop 11.7% to a total of 24.82 million tons this year, from 28.12 million tons a year ago, Hamburg-based oilseed analyst Oil World said on Tuesday.

• Tuesday, August 14th 2012 - 22:10 UTC

  US, France and Mexico considering G20 emergency meeting to address soaring grain prices

  

  US, France and Mexico are planning talks to consider whether an emergency meeting is needed to tackle the soaring price of grain. The three will hold a conference call at the end of this month after the worst US drought in 50 years threatens to cause a sharp rise in the cost of staple crops.

• Tuesday, August 14th 2012 - 22:01 UTC

  Standard Chartered CEO in US to discuss money laundering allegations

  

  Standard Chartered chief executive is in New York to negotiate directly with the US regulator that accused it of “scheming” to hide 250bn dollars of transactions with Iran. The regulator will hold a hearing on Wednesday to decide whether to revoke the bank's New York banking licence. It is unclear yet whether Peter Sands will attend the hearing.

• Tuesday, August 14th 2012 - 21:28 UTC

  Olympic flag flies in Rio do Janeiro; IOC concern about the 2016 timetable

  

  The official flag of the Olympics arrived in Rio de Janeiro, the host city of the next Games. Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes waved the flag after stepping off the plane with other officials and Brazilian athletes who competed in London.

• Tuesday, August 14th 2012 - 07:54 UTC

  Falklands included in Argentina’s UN continental shelf committee presentation

  

  Argentina made a technical presentation last week before the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, CLCS, on the exterior limits of the Argentine shelf in which the claimed territories of the Malvinas, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands and ‘Argentine Antarctica’ were included.

• Tuesday, August 14th 2012 - 07:42 UTC

  Pope’s former butler and a computer expert to stand trial for “aggravated theft”

  

  Vatican magistrate ordered Pope Benedict's former butler to stand trial on charges of aggravated theft for leaking documents alleging corruption in the Vatican. In a 35-page document on the case which has rocked the Holy See since Paolo Gabriele was arrested last May, the Vatican also charged a computer expert who worked in the Vatican bureaucracy with involvement in the case, the first mention of a second man.

• Monday, August 13th 2012 - 23:14 UTC

  HMS Dauntless in Falklands after spending four months in West Africa

  

  The Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless arrived last week to the Falkland Islands in the last leg of its six month deployment in the South Atlantic, spending most of the time along the West African coast.