International

• Monday, May 23rd 2011 - 04:02 UTC

  Spain’s ruling Socialists suffer major defeat but early elections ruled out

  

  Spain's ruling Socialist Party sustained heavy losses in municipal elections on Sunday, amid widespread protests against high unemployment. The conservative People's Party (PP) took 37.5% of the vote compared with almost 28% for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's PSOE, with more than 90% of votes counted.

• Monday, May 23rd 2011 - 00:58 UTC

  Uruguay ratifies “continental solidarity” in the Falklands/Malvinas dispute

  

  Uruguay ratified to visiting UK Foreign Minister for Latin America Jeremy Browne, Montevideo’s “continental solidarity” policy with Argentina regarding the Falklands/Malvinas dispute but also described relations with the UK as “extremely cordial”.

• Monday, May 23rd 2011 - 00:06 UTC

  Air France’s Atlantic crash: speed probes seem to have iced reports Germany’s Spiegel

  

  Air France plane crashed into the Atlantic in 2009 because of a sudden stall, the German Spiegel magazine reported Sunday citing an expert involved in analysing data from the plane's flight recorders.

• Monday, May 23rd 2011 - 00:01 UTC

  Maradona to coach Dubai team and puts Arab football on global spotlight

  

  Diego Maradona will become the second highest paid coach in world football when he formally takes over as manager of UAE Pro League side Al Wasl next month.

• Sunday, May 22nd 2011 - 23:54 UTC

  Spain’s Mr Zara is buying one acre site in London’s West End for £ 220m

  

  Spain’s Amancio Ortega, the co-founder and former chairman of retail giant Inditex, is splashing out on a 1 acre “island site” on London’s Oxford Street for around £220m according to Property Week.

• Sunday, May 22nd 2011 - 23:41 UTC

  Ukraine’s richest man pays highest price for London residence: £ 136.4 million

  

  Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, has paid the highest price for a UK residence, buying an apartment in the One Hyde Park development in Knightsbridge. Land Registry documents show that two properties on the seventh and eighth floor of the luxury development have been bought by a single buyer, the total consideration amounting to £136.4m.

• Sunday, May 22nd 2011 - 22:32 UTC

  UK ends military operation in Iraq which was started in 2003

  

  UK's military operation in Iraq will officially end midnight Sunday, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed. It comes after the Royal Navy completed its training of Iraqi sailors, with the last personnel leaving the country on Friday.

• Sunday, May 22nd 2011 - 13:17 UTC

  Catholic Church points to politicians on corruption and discredited institutions

  

  The Latin America Catholic Church Episcopal Council, Celam, sent a strong message to the political establishment saying it is painful to see so many people victims of the narcotics trade and so many young people disenchanted with institutions because of corruption. Celam held its XXXIII two-day Ordinary Assembly in Montevideo.

• Sunday, May 22nd 2011 - 13:09 UTC

  Greece’s credit rating downgraded and risks a ‘sovereign default’

  

  Greece’s credit rating was cut on Friday three levels by Fitch Ratings, which said that even a voluntary extension of its bond maturities being studied by EU policy makers would be considered a default.

• Sunday, May 22nd 2011 - 12:58 UTC

  Standard & Poor’s ‘yellow card’ for Italy; promise of balanced budget in 2014

  

  Italy’s Treasury said it will “intensify” structural changes in the economy and push ahead with measures to balance the budget by 2014 after Standard & Poor’s said its debt rating is at risk of a downgrade.