International

• Thursday, July 29th 2010 - 05:43 UTC

  UN General Assembly declare access to clean water a human right

  

  Safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights, the General Assembly declared Wednesday, voicing deep concern that almost 900 million people worldwide do not have access to clean water.

• Thursday, July 29th 2010 - 05:36 UTC

  UK Overseas Territories “fifth in world league table of bird extinctions”

  

  Put together the UK’s 16 Overseas Territories (including Falklands and South Georgia) are fifth in the world league table of bird extinctions, with at least ten species from the territories going to oblivion since 1500AD, partially or wholly because of the impact of non-native mammals, such as rats, feral cats, mice and pigs, according to BirdLife International site.

• Tuesday, July 27th 2010 - 20:48 UTC

  EU population reaches 500 million, with strong boost from net migration

  

  The population in the European Union (EU) rose to over 500 million this year, official figures released by the EU statistics office Eurostat on Tuesday showed.

• Tuesday, July 27th 2010 - 02:33 UTC

  Gibraltar airport scheduled to become operational next May 2001

  

  Gibraltar's new airport terminal is scheduled for completion in May 2011 and will come into operation regardless of whether or not the works on the La Linea North Entrance have been completed, Chief Minister Peter Caruana has confirmed.

• Monday, July 26th 2010 - 03:41 UTC

  Russian planning massive sale of assets to cover budget deficit

  

  Russia plans the largest sell-off of state assets since the early 1990s as it seeks to raise over 29 billion US dollars to plug budget gaps over the next three years, finance ministry sources told reporters. The plan to sell minority stakes in 10 major companies in 2011-2013 had been discussed and approved at a preliminary meeting chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

• Monday, July 26th 2010 - 03:37 UTC

  Surprise rebound of the UK economy in the second quarter, 1.1%

  

  The British economy grew by a faster-than-expected 1.1% in the second quarter of the year, according to official data. The figure - a preliminary estimate from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - was almost double the 0.6% growth rate expected by economists.

• Saturday, July 24th 2010 - 00:16 UTC

  Seven of 91 EU banks failed stress-tests: five from Spain

  

  Seven of the 91 European banks that underwent stress tests have failed the health-checks, the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) has said. They include five Spanish banks - Diada, Espiga, Banca Civica, Unnim and Cajasur. The other two were Germany's Hypo Real Estate and Greece's ATEbank.

• Friday, July 23rd 2010 - 23:50 UTC

  WTO calls for more global cooperation in natural resources trading

  

  Trading in natural resources creates a great many challenges both for importing and exporting countries and governments need to cooperate more intensively if these challenges are to be adequately addressed, according to World Trade Organization economists.

• Friday, July 23rd 2010 - 22:32 UTC

  British Deputy PM admits Gibraltar is a “sensitive topic” in the Cleggs’ home

  

  Britain's deputy prime minister, Nicholas Clegg, joked in the House of Commons this week that Gibraltar “is a sensitive topic” in his home, which he shares with his Spanish wife, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez.

• Friday, July 23rd 2010 - 22:30 UTC

  India develops 35 US dollars touch-screen laptop

  

  The Indian government announced the development of a touch-screen laptop pitched at students at a cost of 35 US dollars. The low cost device, which runs Linux, is being readied for production.