International

• Monday, May 9th 2011 - 05:52 UTC

  ‘Informal’ talks with Spain to address Bay of Gibraltar incidents and Trilateral Forum

  

  Gibraltar’s Chief Minister met ‘informally’ with President Rodriguez Zapatero’s top Moncloa official Bernardino Leon to seek ways of getting the tripartite (UK, Spain, Gibraltar) process back on its feet.

• Monday, May 9th 2011 - 00:56 UTC

  Landslide SNP victory: London will not block referendum on Scottish independence

  

  UK government will not move to block a referendum on Scottish independence, the Secretary of State for Scotland Liberal Democrat MP Michael Moore has said adding constitutional questions raised about the rights or wrongs of holding a vote would not be raised.

• Monday, May 9th 2011 - 00:53 UTC

  Two-day strategic and economic dialogue between US and China

  

  Top US and Chinese officials will be meeting for two days in Washington, starting this Monday. The heads of 16 US government agencies and representatives from 20 Chinese government departments will discuss the most difficult issues in a complex, interdependent relationship.

• Saturday, May 7th 2011 - 04:49 UTC

  UK overwhelmingly rejects changing MP’s first-past-the-post electoral system

  

  UK has voted overwhelmingly to reject changing the way MPs are elected - dealing a bitter blow to Nick Clegg on top of heavy Lib Dem poll losses. Officials say 19.1m people voted in the second UK-wide referendum in history - a higher than expected turnout of 41%.

• Saturday, May 7th 2011 - 04:47 UTC

  Greek exit from Euro zone becomes an option; Portugal faces two-year recession

  

  Top finance officials of the Euro zone's biggest economies met to discuss Greece's debt crisis and Athens denied a media report that it was considering whether to leave the block.

• Friday, May 6th 2011 - 02:42 UTC

  First body recovered from Air France wreckage in seabed four kilometres deep

  

  An undersea recovery team has retrieved a first body from the wreck of an Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic in 2009 with the loss of all 228 on board, French police said on Thursday.

• Friday, May 6th 2011 - 02:14 UTC

  Iron-ore price doubles in a year; Brazil Vale’s profits soar to 6.8bn in first

  

  Brazil’s Vale, the world’s largest iron ore producer, posted a record quarterly profit as mineral prices and sales of metals including copper and nickel surged. Net income increased to 6.83 billion USD from 1.6 billion, in the year-ago period, Vale announced Thursday in a regulatory filing.

• Friday, May 6th 2011 - 01:40 UTC

  Indian lab opens facility in Argentina to act as global hub for cancer drugs

  

  India’s Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on Thursday said it has opened its new facility in Argentina which would serve as a global hub for cancer treatment drugs.

• Friday, May 6th 2011 - 00:14 UTC

  Uruguay and United Arab Emirates sign an open skies agreement

  

  A visiting delegation from the United Arab Emirates, UAE, signed this week an ‘open skies’ air services agreement with Uruguay.

• Friday, May 6th 2011 - 00:03 UTC

  Commodity prices fall for the fourth day running; oil below 100 USD per barrel

  

  Commodity prices fell on Thursday for a fourth day, following weak economic news from Europe and the US. Oil prices were down 10% at one stage, with US light, sweet crude ending the day below 100 US dollars a barrel.