International

• Saturday, November 5th 2011 - 07:58 UTC

  Italy agrees to EC and IMF monitoring of budget reforms in support of the Euro

  

  Italy has agreed to allow the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to monitor its implementation of budgetary reforms that would cut state spending and raise revenue in a bid to prevent the sovereign debt crisis from spreading to the Euro zone’s third largest economy.

• Saturday, November 5th 2011 - 07:55 UTC

  Greek PM wins vote of confidence and calls for national unity government

  

  Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou survived a vote of confidence in parliament on Friday evening, while indicating that he might be prepared to stand down. Results showed there were 153 votes in favor of Papandreou, with 145 against.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 08:39 UTC

  South African group awarded contract to build St Helena international airport

  

  The St Helena Government this week entered into a contract with South Africa’s Basil Read (Pty) Ltd in the amount of £201.5 million for the design and construction of the airport, an additional up to £10 million in shared risk contingency, and £35.1 million for ten years of operation.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 08:24 UTC

  Papandreou yields, scraps referendum, promises to step down

  

  Intense European pressure forced debt-stricken Greece to seek political consensus on a new bailout plan instead of holding a referendum after EU leaders raised the prospect of a Greek exit from the Euro to preserve the single currency.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 08:11 UTC

  Brazil must balance trade relation and avoid ‘anti-China feeling’

  

  Brazil must balance its trade relation with China, (leading commercial partner) and not allow an anti-Chinese feeling among manufacturers to spoil relations with Beijing said economists in Sao Paulo.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 00:38 UTC

  Spain’s PP wants a return to ‘bilateralism’ in dealing with the Gibraltar dispute

  

  Gibraltar could be heading for stormy days if as opinion polls indicate Spain’s Partido Popular sweeps into power and has plans to resuscitate the ‘bilateral’ Brussels process by opposition to the current ‘trilateral’ talks.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 00:32 UTC

  Gibraltar will be holding a general election December 8

  

  The governor of Gibraltar dissolved parliament on Thursday and called a general election in the contested British territory for December 8. The event will take place almost three weeks after Spain’s general election November 20 when the Conservatives are expected to sweep into office.

• Friday, November 4th 2011 - 00:14 UTC

  If Greece leaves the Euro, it must also quit the EU, warns Brussels

  

  If Greece decided to leave the Euro, it would also have to quit the European Union, according to the terms of the EU treaties, the European Commission said on Thursday.

• Thursday, November 3rd 2011 - 23:51 UTC

  Obama tells Sarkozy: “we all need to learn lessons from CFK re-election”

  

  President Barack Obama recommended his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy to follow the example set by Argentine President Cristina Fernández, who was re-elected in a landslide win just ten days ago.

• Thursday, November 3rd 2011 - 14:57 UTC

  Argentine president calls for an end to anarchy and a return to “real capitalism”

  

  During Thursday’s meetings of the Group of 20 in Cannes, Argentine President Cristina Fernández for G20 leaders to put a stop to the current “anarchistic economic capitalism” and regulate the markets, not the countries, to go back to what she referred to as “real capitalism” after three years of world economic crisis.