International

• Saturday, December 17th 2011 - 03:40 UTC

  Satellite picture of China’s first aircraft carrier in sea trials

  

  A commercial US satellite company says it has managed to take a picture of China's first aircraft carrier during its sea trials in the Yellow Sea. If confirmed, it would be the first known photo of the former Soviet vessel recently refitted by Beijing.

• Saturday, December 17th 2011 - 02:57 UTC

  Russia after almost two decades is admitted to the World Trade Organization

  

  The World Trade Organization admitted Russia as its newest member on Friday, giving a boost to its biggest trading partner, the European Union.

• Saturday, December 17th 2011 - 02:52 UTC

  Cameron: UK is a Christian country and “we should not be afraid to say so”

  

  Prime Minister David Cameron said the UK is a Christian country “and we should not be afraid to say so”.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:38 UTC

  WTO deal on government buying, opens 100bn dollars of government contracts

  

  The World Trade Organization reached on Thursday a landmark reform on its Government Procurement Agreement, opening 100 billion dollars of government contracts to foreign competition and paving the way for more countries, including China, to join the pact.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:35 UTC

  IMF warns no economy in the world will be immune to the crisis unfolding

  

  The world economic outlook is “quite gloomy” and will require action by all countries, starting with those in Europe, to head off an escalating crisis that carries risks of a global depression, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:32 UTC

  Fitch downgrades the credit rating of the world’s six largest banks

  

  Fitch announced on Thursday it has downgraded the credit rating of six of the world’s largest banks. The banks include US’ Bank of America, British Barclays, and France’s BNP Paribas.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:23 UTC

  French PM from Brazil admits new “jolts” can be expected in the Euro zone

  

  French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said his country is likely to face new “jolts” from the Euro zone debt crisis amid rumors it could lose its triple-A credit rating.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 20:59 UTC

  Astori anticipates investment grade and the white list for Uruguay in 2012

  

  Vice president Danilo Astori anticipated that in 2012 Uruguay will recover investment grade and said that including Uruguay in the OECD “grey list” was a “tremendous injustice” which did not take into account all the advances achieved in combating money laundering and narcotics trade.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 17:52 UTC

  After nine bloody years US military officially end Iraq war

  

  The US military officially ended its war in Iraq, rolling up its flag at a low-key ceremony with Defence Secretary Leon Panetta nearly nine bloody years after the invasion that ousted Dictator Saddam Hussein.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 00:50 UTC

  China imposes punitive duties on large cars exported from US

  

  China will impose punitive duties of up to 22% on large cars and SUVs exported from the United States, China's Commerce Ministry said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of trade disputes between the world's two largest economies.