International

• Saturday, July 2nd 2011 - 05:28 UTC

  London and Chilean stock exchanges are in the process of integration

  

  Finance Minister Felipe Larraín advanced efforts to integrate the Chilean and London stock exchanges during a recent visit to the United Kingdom. A delegation of government officials and business leaders accompanied the minister on his trip to promote foreign investment in Chile.

• Saturday, July 2nd 2011 - 05:23 UTC

  Former IMF chief case rapidly becoming a Mexican soap opera

  

  Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed on Friday from house arrest after prosecutors raised serious doubts about his accuser's credibility, including that she lied to the grand jury.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 15:46 UTC

  Expected bumper crop in US makes corn prices suffer its biggest fall in 15 years

  

  The price of corn suffered its biggest fall for 15 years on Thursday, prompting speculation that the high cost of food may start to ease. Corn prices dropped 10% after a US Department of Agriculture report that farmers are sowing unexpectedly large amounts of the grain.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 15:31 UTC

  EU and Mercosur resume ‘formal’ trade negotiations next week

  

  European Union and Mercosur delegates are scheduled to meet next week in Brussels for another round of negotiations with the purpose of reaching a trade agreement.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 06:39 UTC

  Philip Morris launches legal action against Australia; similar to Uruguayan case

  

  Tobacco giant Philip Morris International launched legal action this week against the Australian government over the country's plans to strip company logos from cigarette packages and replace them with grisly images of cancerous mouths, sickly children and bulging, blinded eyes.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 06:29 UTC

  Australian MPs plant to limit purchase of prime farmland by foreigners

  

  Australian lawmakers are demanding a review of foreign investment rules to stop foreign mining companies, including those from China, buying up prime farmland.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 06:23 UTC

  EU farm budget frozen for next seven years and conditioned to ‘greening’

  

  The European Union has published its long-awaited budget, which will see spending on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) frozen for the next seven years and make 30% of direct support conditional on ‘greening’.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 06:20 UTC

  EU paymasters reject point blank proposal for a 5% budget hike

  

  The European Commission’s request for a 5% hike in member states’ contributions in the next EU budget met immediate resistance from big countries such as Germany, France and Britain yesterday.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 01:48 UTC

  Brazil and Japan allege over 100 countries support UN Security Council reform

  

  Foreign Affairs ministers from Brazil and Japan announced that over 100 nations have expressed support for a proposal to expand the United Nations Security Council.

• Friday, July 1st 2011 - 01:38 UTC

  Beijing-Shanghai high speed train link begins commercial operations

  

  High speed trains linking Beijing and Shanghai made their commercial debut on Thursday on a 33 billion US dollars track China hopes will open a new page to the country’s rail history and help ease its overloaded transport system.