International

• Thursday, April 21st 2011 - 06:18 UTC

  Syria lifts 50 year emergency rule but permission is needed for demonstrations

  

  The Syrian authorities' arrest of a leftist opposition figure overnight suggests that a bill passed by the government to end emergency rule after 48 years will not halt repression, rights campaigners said.

• Wednesday, April 20th 2011 - 02:21 UTC

  FDI in China soars 32.9% in March, totals 30.3 billion USD in first quarter

  

  Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China grew 32.9% year on year in March to 12.52 billion US dollars, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) reported Tuesday. FDI in China has increased 29.4% in the first quarter to 30.34 billion USD, MOC spokesman Yao Jian said.

• Wednesday, April 20th 2011 - 02:19 UTC

  China urges US to adopt “responsible measures” to guarantee investors interests

  

  China, the top holder of U.S. Treasury bonds, urged the United States Tuesday to adopt “responsible measures” after ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut the outlook on U.S. sovereign debt to negative.

• Wednesday, April 20th 2011 - 01:15 UTC

  Phillips diversifies and cedes control of its 80 year old television unit

  

  Royal Philips Electronics from the Netherlands will cede control of its 80-year-old television unit to an Asian contract manufacturer, joining European conglomerates including Siemens AG scaling back consumer electronics as prices decline.

• Tuesday, April 19th 2011 - 14:04 UTC

  IMF pounds at emerging and developed countries, but forgets self-criticism

  

  The IMF criticized developing countries for not responding strongly enough to the surge of hot money into their markets, saying the result could be a hard economic landing.

• Tuesday, April 19th 2011 - 04:04 UTC

  Wikileaks reveals Malaysian air force over up of F-5 jet engines which turned up in Uruguay

  

  The Malaysian government failed to inform Washington that two “US-supplied” F-5 fighter jet engines had gone missing since May 22, 2008, despite having at least “three opportunities” to come clean, according to leaked United States diplomatic cables released recently.
  The engines two years later were finally located two years later in Uruguay.

• Monday, April 18th 2011 - 21:51 UTC

  Finland’s anti-Euro strong showing could block Portugal’s bailout negotiation

  

  What’s the link between Portugal's bailout negotiations and Finland? Well negotiations began under a cloud Monday after an anti-Euro party scored big gains in a Finnish election and immediately vowed to derail the pending rescue.

• Monday, April 18th 2011 - 18:57 UTC

  RAF biggest ever aircraft transport and tanker begins testing in UK

  

  The Royal Air Force largest ever aircraft with a 60 metre wingspan and nearly 60 metres long arrived in the UK for the first time this week, the MOD has announced. The new future strategic tanker aircraft (FSTA) has also been named publicly by the RAF as Voyager.

• Monday, April 18th 2011 - 09:57 UTC

  Pacific male humpback whales change their mating songs over a two year period

  

  Male humpback whales have their own version of the hit parade, researchers say. Within regional populations of the whales, males all sing the same mating song. But the pattern of the song changes over time, with new versions spreading across the ocean and nearly always from west to east, according to the study published online this month in the journal Current Biology.

• Monday, April 18th 2011 - 07:10 UTC

  China’s anti-inflation crusade raises bank reserves: fourth time in four months

  

  China raised banks' required reserves for the fourth time this year, extending the fight against excessive liquidity and stubbornly high inflation in the world's second-largest economy.