International

• Tuesday, November 8th 2011 - 08:20 UTC

  White House officially denies evidence of extraterrestrials contacting humans

  

  The White House has said it has no evidence that extraterrestrials have ever tried to contact humans. In a blow to conspiracy theorists everywhere, a senior Barack Obama administration official also says there is also no credible information to suggest evidence of alien life is being kept from the public.

• Tuesday, November 8th 2011 - 08:03 UTC

  Emerging nations ready to support the Euro but demand IMF reforms

  

  Major emerging economies are ready to provide financial help to the Euro zone via the International Monetary Fund but in return want commitments to reform the IMF to be implemented, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

• Monday, November 7th 2011 - 05:30 UTC

  Polls indicate that Rajoy and the conservatives will win by a wide margin in Spain

  

  Spain's centre-right People's Party will comfortably win parliamentary elections in two weeks time, 20 November, with an absolute majority, a private poll showed, as voters punish the Socialist government for the country's economic woes.

• Saturday, November 5th 2011 - 08:02 UTC

  G20 agrees on an “action plan”, but details will have to wait

  

  The G20, composed of the world's most powerful economies, come up Friday with an “action plan” to save the world economic and stabilize the global monetary system, according to an official statement from the Group of 20. The continuing Euro zone debt crisis has dominated the summit.

• 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.