International

• Saturday, July 16th 2011 - 06:58 UTC

  Eight out of 90 banks in Europe fail stress-test, five of them from Spain

  

  Eight banks have failed Europe's bank stress test designed to assess whether they can weather another economic crisis while 16 banks barely passed, bank regulators said on Friday.

• Saturday, July 16th 2011 - 06:52 UTC

  RAF largest ever dual purpose aircraft, Voyager can carry 300 troops or 100.000 litres of fuel

  

  The RAF’s largest ever aircraft, Voyager, has been flown by an RAF pilot at the Royal International Air Tattoo, Fairford for its first public appearance. Fourteen Voyager aircraft and a complete support package are being provided to the RAF under a 27 year £10.5bn Private Finance Initiative contract signed with the AirTanker consortium.

• Friday, July 15th 2011 - 06:04 UTC

  China forecasted to become Latin America’s second trade partner by 2015

  

  China will become Latin America's second largest trade partner as early as in 2015, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said this week.

• Friday, July 15th 2011 - 06:01 UTC

  “Home, sweet home”, ever so distant (and expensive) for Chinese citizens

  

  China on Thursday pledged to extend limits on new home purchases to smaller cities as authorities step up efforts to cool the country's red-hot real estate market. The State Council, or cabinet, said it would tighten existing property restrictions in cities that have seen excessive price rises to push them “back to reasonable levels”.

• Friday, July 15th 2011 - 05:54 UTC

  Italian parliament does its homework and approves sweeping austerity budget

  

  Italy's upper house of parliament has agreed to a sweeping austerity budget in a move intended to allay concerns over a possible bailout. Meanwhile, Greece must come to terms with another ratings downgrade.

• Friday, July 15th 2011 - 05:49 UTC

  Attempt to create South Atlantic whale sanctuary rejected in IWC meeting

  

  International Whaling Commission's (IWC) annual meeting closed after a tense final day when relations between opposing blocs came close to collapse. Latin American nations attempted to force a vote on a proposal to create a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic.

• Thursday, July 14th 2011 - 23:50 UTC

  Murdoch and son James think twice and agree to testify before British Parliament

  

  Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and his son James bowed late Thursday to threats to find them in contempt of British Parliament and agreed to testify about the phone-hacking scandal to lawmakers on July 19.

• Thursday, July 14th 2011 - 22:53 UTC

  Global economic prospects fragile and downside risks higher, says IMF

  

  The International Monetary Fund called on emerging G-20 economies for a rapid macroeconomic policy tightening and demand rebalancing, while “pragmatic use of macro-prudential tools may be needed to manage large capital inflows”.

• Thursday, July 14th 2011 - 18:38 UTC

  Gibraltar’s current debt level makes Europeans “green with envy”

  

  Gibraltar’s economy is performing well and its current debt levels are not a cause for concern said Professor Albrecht Ritschl from the London School of Economics interviewed by Radio Gibraltar to provide an independent assessment of the latest economic data presented in the local Parliament last week.

• Thursday, July 14th 2011 - 18:31 UTC

  Media tycoon Murdoch refuses a summons by British Parliament

  

  Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch refused a summons by Britain's parliament to answer questions over alleged crimes at one of his newspapers, leaving a senior executive from his media empire to face lawmakers keen to break the media mogul's grip on politics.