International

• Monday, December 13th 2010 - 00:25 UTC

  China promises “healthy and stable” economic development in 2011

  

  China will enhance and improve macro-economic regulation to ensure stable and healthy economic development in 2011, said a statement released Sunday in Beijing after the annual Central Economic Work Conference.

• Sunday, December 12th 2010 - 23:31 UTC

  Saudi’s 70/80 US dollars a barrel stance prevails at OPEC meeting in Ecuador

  

  Leading OPEC producer Saudi Arabia said it still favoured a 70-80 US dollars price range for oil, a restatement of a two-year-old policy that will be welcomed by consumer nations worried that rising oil prices may get out of control and hamper global economic recovery.

• Saturday, December 11th 2010 - 06:08 UTC

  Torture a routine practice for authorities across the globe, says ACAT

  

  In Latin America the heritage of decades of military dictatorship means that “recourse to violent methods, notably torture, remains widespread among the security forces”, says a report from the Paris based Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT).-.

• Saturday, December 11th 2010 - 05:52 UTC

  China increases banks’ reserves, third time in five weeks, to counter inflation

  

  China increased banks reserve requirements for the third time in five weeks to counter the threat from inflation after November’s lending and trade surplus topped analysts’ estimates.

• Saturday, December 11th 2010 - 00:30 UTC

  Barcelona signs £ 125 million commercial shirt-sponsorship deal with Qatar

  

  One of Spain’s two most popular and successful football clubs, Barcelona has signed their first ever commercial shirt sponsorship deal after agreeing a record £125m contract with the Qatar Foundation.

• Friday, December 10th 2010 - 18:40 UTC

  China posts record foreign trade in November, but fears of a “rough” 2011

  

  Even when China's foreign trade hit a historic high in November, boosted by rising demand ahead of the Christmas shopping season, economists forecast a bumpy road next year.

• Friday, December 10th 2010 - 18:32 UTC

  IMF evaluates the spill-over impact of China’s growth for the rest of the world

  

  Economic data suggest that a 1 percentage point increase in China’s growth rate sustained over five years means an extra 0.4 percentage point of growth for the rest of the world, two experts at the International Monetary Fund said after studying figures for the past two decades.

• Friday, December 10th 2010 - 10:25 UTC

  Falklands invites C-24 president to “balance” recent visit to Argentina

  

  The Falkland Islands government has officially extended an invitation to the chairman of the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization Ambassador (C 24), Donatus Keith St. Aimee to visit the South Atlantic Islands with the purpose of ‘balancing’ a recent similar invitation from Argentina and to defend the Falklands’ people right to exercise self-determination.

• Friday, December 10th 2010 - 06:15 UTC

  Russia’s Putin says Assange arrest shows the West has problems with democracy

  

  Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange shows the West has its own problems with democracy.

• Friday, December 10th 2010 - 01:59 UTC

  Parmalat Calisto Tanzi sentenced to 18 years in prison for 18.6 billion bankruptcy

  

  The founder of Italian dairy food company Parmalat, Calisto Tanzi, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the company's collapse seven years ago. Parmalat buckled in December 2003 under a18.6 billion US dollars hole in its accounts.