International

• Thursday, September 8th 2011 - 22:21 UTC

  Fitch warns it might downgrade China and Japan ratings, but who rates Fitch?

  

  Fitch Ratings warned that it might downgrade China's credit rating within two years as the country's banks struggle with debt loads following a lending surge to help lift the economy during the 2008 financial crisis.

• Thursday, September 8th 2011 - 22:17 UTC

  China and UK to develop offshore trading hub for the Yuan in London

  

  China and the UK are to develop an offshore trading hub for the Yuan based in London. UK Chancellor George Osborne confirmed the agreement after meeting with Chinese vice-premier Wang Qishan in London.

• Thursday, September 8th 2011 - 22:13 UTC

  Bank of England won’t extend liquidity program; leaves rates at minimum

  

  UK interest rates have been held at a record low of 0.5% by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Concerns about the strength of the UK economic recovery meant economists had expected rates to remain unchanged as they have been since March 2009.

• Thursday, September 8th 2011 - 16:16 UTC

  Mosquitoes never rest: they rapidly develop resistance to insecticide treated nets

  

  Mosquitoes can rapidly develop resistance to bed nets treated with insecticide, a new study from Senegal suggests. In recent years the nets have become a leading method of preventing malaria, especially in Africa.

• Thursday, September 8th 2011 - 05:58 UTC

  Italy and Spain pass austerity measures to control budgets and debts

  

  Italy and Spain have passed new austerity measures as they battle to control their debts. Italy's upper house of parliament approved an austerity package which should cut its deficit by some 54 billion Euros over three years.

• Thursday, September 8th 2011 - 02:48 UTC

  Soros predicts Euro crisis could be worse than Lehman Brothers

  

  Billionaire George Soros believes that the current crisis of the Euro zone has the ‘potential to be a lot worse than the Lehman Brothers’ in the US due to the lack of consensus in the European Union to create an authority with enough power to handle this problem.

• Thursday, September 8th 2011 - 01:22 UTC

  Gibraltar and La Linea committed to share ‘a common socio-economic future’

  

  Gibraltar and La Linea are meant to “share a common socio-economic future” Chief Minister Peter Caruana declared Tuesday in the neighbouring Spanish town hall after his first official meeting with the new Socialist (PSOE) mayor Gemma Araujo.

• Wednesday, September 7th 2011 - 23:30 UTC

  Germany’s high court gives Parliament greater say in Euro zone bailouts

  

  Germany's top court handed its country's parliament a greater say over Euro zone bailouts, potentially hampering Berlin's ability to act decisively against a debt crisis which Chancellor Angela Merkel said needed a fundamental rethink to solve.

• Wednesday, September 7th 2011 - 12:01 UTC

  Falklands’ deployed HMS Edinburgh visits South African navy Simons Town base

  

  The veteran HMS Edinburgh has completed the first half of her six-month Falkland Islands deployment in the South Atlantic and is now in South Africa for maintenance and the ship’s company for some rest and recovery.

• Wednesday, September 7th 2011 - 11:21 UTC

  Iran becomes Brazil’s biggest buyer of beef eclipsing Russia

  

  Iran has eclipsed Russia to become the biggest buyer of beef from Brazil, the world’s top exporter of the meat, strengthening the countries’ controversial ties.