International

• Friday, January 8th 2010 - 06:44 UTC

  New Japan Finance minister wants weaker Yen to help recover economy

  

  Japan's newly appointed finance minister Naoto Kan has called for a weaker yen in order to aid the recovery of the Japanese economy. Speaking the day after his appointment, Mr Kan said it would be “nice” to see the currency weaken.

• Friday, January 8th 2010 - 06:28 UTC

  Ample support for Bank of England’s decision to leave monetary policy unchanged

  

  The Bank of England announced Thursday its decision to hold the base rate of interest at its current historic low of 0.5%. The Monetary Policy Committee also opted against altering its quantitative easing programme, under which it has already created £200 billion to pump into the economy.

• Friday, January 8th 2010 - 06:22 UTC

  Waters dispute with Spain, Gibraltar’s main challenge in 2009

  

  Gibraltar Chief Minister Peter Caruana said this week that the biggest challenge of all in 2009 was that over the sovereignty of Gibraltar’s waters represented by Spain’s designation of areas of these as an EU environmental protection zone, and the EU Commission inclusion of it in the official EU list.

• Thursday, January 7th 2010 - 17:32 UTC

  Spain optimistic about an EU/Mercosur trade agreement this year

  

  Spain’s Foreign Affairs minister Miguel Angel Moratinos is confident that the European Union will reach a trade understanding or road map with Mercosur during the first half of this year, since Spain holds the EU rotating presidency.

• Thursday, January 7th 2010 - 16:56 UTC

  Japanese whalers and environmentalist ram vessels in the high seas

  

  Anti-whaling activists have accused a Japanese vessel of ramming their high-tech speed boat during a confrontation in the Southern Ocean. Video of the incident appeared to show the Japanese ship severely damaging the Ady Gil, but all six crew were rescued.

• Wednesday, January 6th 2010 - 11:15 UTC

  Spanish unemployment at new records: 19.3% and 40% for the young

  

  Spanish unemployment rose to the highest in more than a decade in December, 19.3%, capping a year that saw the nation’s jobless rate soar to double the Euro- zone average. The number of people registering for unemployment benefits increased by 54,657, or 1.41 percentage points from November to 3.92 million.

• Wednesday, January 6th 2010 - 03:16 UTC

  Coldest winter in a century and snow close down Britain

  

  Britain was in the grip of snow chaos as Arctic conditions forced the closure of schools, roads and airports. Some train services were also cancelled as forecasters predicted one of the coldest winters in 100 years.

• Wednesday, January 6th 2010 - 01:36 UTC

  Blue-fin tuna sold at Tokyo New Year auction for 176.000 USD

  

  A huge bluefin tuna was sold for USD 176,000 in the first auction of the year at a Tokyo fish market on Tuesday, amid growing pressure on Japan to help save the threatened fish.

• Tuesday, January 5th 2010 - 13:09 UTC

  Global trade recovery from major contraction in 70 years forecasted slow

  

  Global trade is expected to pick up again this year at a significant rate but not sufficient to overcome losses of 2009. Last year trade plunged 12.25% the worst result in seventy years and a full recovery can only be anticipated for 2011 when China will be confirmed as the world’s leading exporter.

• Tuesday, January 5th 2010 - 12:56 UTC

  PM Brown admits he is the underdog in the forthcoming general election

  

  UK Gordon Brown has admitted he is the underdog in the forthcoming general election battle - but insisted he is ready to “fight” for Britain. The Prime Minister said voters faced a “big choice” between the Tories promise of “austerity” and Labour's plans to encourage “aspiration”.