International

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 15:36 UTC

  IMF insists Europe needs “far-reaching” reforms to safeguard the “social model”

  

  Europe needs collaborative and far-reaching reforms to restore strong and balanced growth across the region and safeguard the European social model, the head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn told bankers and officials in Frankfurt.

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 05:19 UTC

  EU and IMF are demanding more austerity and reforms from Greece

  

  EU and IMF auditors cleared a new slice of rescue funding for Greece on Tuesday but demanded more austerity action while acknowledging that the country faced potential strains in repaying on time.

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 05:17 UTC

  Emergency loans to Ireland total 85 b Euros, conditioned to draconian budget cuts

  

  EU and IMF have extended 85bn Euros of emergency loans to the Republic of Ireland, according to reports on Irish state television. The widely anticipated bail-out package comes after a day of sharp falls in global share prices and the Euro.

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 00:57 UTC

  Spain feeling Irish contagion: extra yield on bonds hits Euro-area high

  

  Spain said it doesn’t need to adopt further austerity measures to stem a surge in borrowing costs as the central government’s budget gap narrowed by almost half.

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 00:51 UTC

  Currency appreciation pressures inevitable until US controls budget deficit

  

  Fast-growing emerging markets would be facing currency appreciation pressures even without the US quantitative easing policy, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in an interview on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 00:50 UTC

  World leaders promise funds and plan to double tigers in the wild by 2022

  

  World leaders and countries that have wild tigers endorsed a major plan to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022 underscoring their commitments at the historic International Tiger Conservation Forum.

• Tuesday, November 23rd 2010 - 23:56 UTC

  Fish can shrink during particularly harsh winters, say Scandinavian scientists

  

  Fish can shrink during particularly harsh winters, according to researchers. Scientists, based in Norway and Finland, discovered that juvenile brown trout reduced in length by as much as 1cm - shrinkage of approximately 10%.

• Tuesday, November 23rd 2010 - 04:28 UTC

  Irish PM will call early election after austerity budget is passed

  

  Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen defied mounting pressure to quit and announced Monday he would stay in office until parliament passed an austerity budget needed to secure an IMF/EU bailout and then call an early election.

• Tuesday, November 23rd 2010 - 03:30 UTC

  Trichet: don’t blame the Euro; it’s a solid currency in historical terms

  

  European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet Monday sought to reassure investors on the resilience of the Euro-zone as Ireland's formal request for financial assistance from the bloc sparked nervousness on European credit markets.

• Monday, November 22nd 2010 - 18:01 UTC

  Relief for Euro and bonds as Ireland € 95 billion rescue package is announced

  

  Ireland became the second Euro country to seek a rescue as the cost of saving its banks threatened a rerun of the Greek debt crisis that destabilized the currency. The Euro rose and European bond risk fell Monday following the announcement of the package.