International

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 17:08 UTC

  World crisis “too deep” to be addressed by “a couple of countries” exclusively

  

  Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff warned that a full blown economic crisis could be devastating for emerging countries as well as for the world’s largest economies. She added that the global financial situation could cause a “serious rupture.”

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 16:37 UTC

  Rare glimpse into the (promiscuous?) sex life of California deep sea squid

  

  Scientists have gained a rare glimpse into the sex life of the mysterious deep-sea squid. By studying footage taken by underwater vehicles, US researchers have found that this rarely seen creature will often engage in same-sex mating.

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 05:54 UTC

  “Negative political considerations” downgraded Italy’s rating says Berlusconi

  

  Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was quick to reject a long-feared assessment from ratings agency Standard & Poor’s that saw Italy’s credit rating downgraded by one notch on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 05:52 UTC

  Spanish oil company takes the lead in super-fast analysis of seismic data

  

  Spanish oil major Repsol-YPF and the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre launched this week their new joint research centre aimed at speeding the analysis of seismic data.

• Wednesday, September 21st 2011 - 02:10 UTC

  Roubini suggests Greece default on its debts and follow Argentina’s 2001 example

  

  The economist who predicted the credit crunch and financial crisis has recommended that Greece leave the Euro, default on its debts and return to the drachma.

• Tuesday, September 20th 2011 - 22:00 UTC

  Beijing says financial aid to Euro zone has ‘no preconditions’

  

  Beijing's plan to provide financial aid to the European Union is not contingent on Europe supporting a proposal that could protect China from trade sanctions, a Commerce Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

• Tuesday, September 20th 2011 - 21:48 UTC

  IMF lowers global 2011/12 growth estimates, but warns things can get worse

  

  The global economic recovery is slowing, with world growth projected at 4% in both 2011 and 2012, down from over 5% in 2010, the IMF said in its latest forecast. And even this lowered projection counts on a lot going well.

• Tuesday, September 20th 2011 - 21:33 UTC

  (Paymaster) Germany needs Parliament approval on deciding Euro zone bailouts

  

  Leading lawmakers in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition have agreed a draft law on an enhanced Euro zone bailout fund to give a greater say to parliament in line with a court ruling earlier this month.

• Tuesday, September 20th 2011 - 21:27 UTC

  Euro-zone growth forecasts plummet: 1.6% this year and 1.1% in 2012

  

  The IMF cut its growth forecast for the 17-nation Euro zone by nearly half a percentage point to 1.6% in 2011 and even weaker conditions are seen for next year with growth of just 1.1%. Currently the single currency region is scarcely growing at a 0.25% annual rate.

• Tuesday, September 20th 2011 - 09:09 UTC

  S&P downgrades Italy’s rating by one notch with negative outlook

  

  Standard and Poor's downgraded its unsolicited ratings on Italy by one notch to A/A-1 and kept its outlook on negative, a major surprise that threatens to add to concerns of contagion in the debt-stressed Euro zone.