International

• Tuesday, May 31st 2011 - 22:52 UTC

  Top-tier sponsors Coca Cola, Visa pressure FIFA to undertake sweeping reforms

  

  Top-tier sponsors Visa Inc and Emirates Airlines added to pressure on FIFA to undertake sweeping reform, as England urged the postponement of President Sepp Blatter's unopposed re-election.

• Tuesday, May 31st 2011 - 22:51 UTC

  WHO scientists suggest cell phones be classified as “possibly carcinogenic”

  

  A working group of 31 scientists from 14 countries meeting at the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said a review of all the available scientific evidence suggested cell phone use should be classified as “possibly carcinogenic”.

• Tuesday, May 31st 2011 - 22:49 UTC

  Gibraltar takes self determination case to Spain’s toughest audience

  

  Gibraltar Government has taken the argument for Gibraltar and its finance centre to the toughest audience in Spain - the ABC newspaper readers.

• Tuesday, May 31st 2011 - 08:35 UTC

  Lagarde pledges in Brazil to give emerging economies more clout in the IMF

  

  French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde pledged to push reforms to give Brazil and other emerging economies more influence at the International Monetary Fund as she kicked off a worldwide tour to win support for her candidacy to lead the global lender.

• Tuesday, May 31st 2011 - 08:18 UTC

  Germany plans to shut all nuclear reactors by 2022 and double renewable energy to 35%

  

  Germany plans to shut all nuclear reactors by 2022, Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition announced Monday, in a policy reversal drawn up in a rush after the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

• Tuesday, May 31st 2011 - 07:43 UTC

  China: Yuan at record high against US dollar; Power shortage and higher prices

  

  China's Yuan has hit a record high against the US dollar after the US Treasury department said the Chinese currency was undervalued but not manipulated. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) fixed the Yuan's mid-point at 6.4856 against the US dollar on Monday.

• Tuesday, May 31st 2011 - 07:39 UTC

  Blatter denies FIFA crisis, admits ‘great image damage’ by corruption allegations

  

  Sepp Blatter has insisted that Fifa is not in crisis, despite the “great damage” done to its image by ongoing corruption allegations. “Football is not in a crisis, only some difficulties,” said the Fifa president.

• Tuesday, May 31st 2011 - 07:28 UTC

  France reports 77 bodies have been recovered from the ocean bed

  

  A total of 127 bodies have been recovered since the start of the search for the Air France Airbus A330 plane that crashed in the Atlantic in June 2009, a Brazilian association of the victims' families said on Tuesday.

• Tuesday, May 31st 2011 - 07:22 UTC

  WHO celebrates NO Tobacco Day and recalls 2003 milestone convention

  

  On World No Tobacco Day (31 May), the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrates the successes of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in the fight against the epidemic of tobacco use. At the same time, WHO recognizes that challenges remain for the public health treaty to reach its full potential as the world's most powerful tobacco control tool.

• Tuesday, May 31st 2011 - 03:02 UTC

  Major setback for Mexican telecommunications tycoon and richest man in the world

  

  Telefonos de Mexico SAB, the country’s largest phone carrier plunged the most in the stock market since December 2008 after the government rejected its application to start offering video services.