International

• Wednesday, June 20th 2012 - 06:52 UTC

  Last minute deal on trade barriers reveals strong divide at the G20 summit

  

  World leaders extended by one year their vow not to put up new trade barriers at the G20 summit on Tuesday in a last-minute deal that exposed deep rifts over protectionism.

• Wednesday, June 20th 2012 - 06:33 UTC

  Wikileaks’ Assange holed in Ecuadorian embassy and asked for political asylum

  

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday walked into Ecuador's embassy in London and applied for political asylum in a sensational bid to avoid extradition to Sweden over alleged sex crimes.

• Wednesday, June 20th 2012 - 06:30 UTC

  Countries boost IMF emergency funding to 456 billion dollars

  

  Nations from around the world firmed up their commitments to provide emergency resources for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) designed to deter the spread of crises and increase the institution’s lending capacity to help countries in financial trouble.

• Wednesday, June 20th 2012 - 06:08 UTC

  Iranian president meets with Bolivia’s Morales reinforce cooperation deals

  

  Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stopped in Bolivia Tuesday en route to the Rio+20 summit in Brazil, to court support from another Latin American nation which has tense ties with the United States.

• Wednesday, June 20th 2012 - 00:48 UTC

  UK and Overseas Territories sign agreement on conservation of sharks

  

  Endangered sharks will be given greater protection following Monday’s signing of an international agreement on the conservation of sharks, according to an announcement made by UK Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon.

• Tuesday, June 19th 2012 - 23:56 UTC

  Argentina invites Russia’s Gazprom to consider investing in YPF operations

  

  The technical teams of Argentine nationalized hydrocarbon companies YPF and Russia’s Gazprom will begin to do joint work in the area, said Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman

• Tuesday, June 19th 2012 - 23:23 UTC

  Slim downplays meaning of YPF shares deal: “it was the exercise of a financial guarantee”

  

  Carlos Slim Domit, son of tycoon Carlos Slim who recently acquired 8.4% of the shares of YPF oil company, confirmed on Monday that their arrival “was not a share purchase but the exercise of a financial guarantee,” which they have been working on in the last four years.

• Tuesday, June 19th 2012 - 22:45 UTC

  Falklands at G20: brief exchange between Cameron and Cristina Fernandez

  

  UK PM David Cameron has refused to accept a letter from Argentina's president about her country's claim to the Falklands Islands. PM Cameron approached President Cristina Fernandez before the first session of the G20 summit in Mexico, No 10 said.

• Tuesday, June 19th 2012 - 06:59 UTC

  Brazil/Argentina agree G20 common position, but will wait to listen to Germany

  

  Brazil and Argentina agreed on Monday “to oppose any financial adjustment plan” and sponsor development and growth policies to face the world crisis, in the framework of the two-day G20 summit taking place in Mexico.

• Tuesday, June 19th 2012 - 06:55 UTC

  Chinese PM Wen Jibao to visit Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile

  

  Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is to attend the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio De Janeiro, and pay official visits to Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile from June 20 to 26, it was announced in Beijing the Foreign Ministry