International

• Friday, February 4th 2011 - 05:18 UTC

  US and Egyptian officials discussing transition plan without Mubarak

  

  United States and Egyptian officials are discussing a plan that would see embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak step down immediately, according to a published report.

• Friday, February 4th 2011 - 05:04 UTC

  Army poised for endgame in Egypt

  

  By 3pm last Friday afternoon, the protesters in central Cairo were chanting: “Where is the army? Come and see what the police are doing to us. We want the army.” And that is the main question, really. Where is the Egyptian army in all this?

• Thursday, February 3rd 2011 - 22:53 UTC

  Copper hits a record price of 10.000 US dollars per ton and could keep soaring

  

  Copper hit a record price of 10,000 USD per ton on Thursday on the back of growing worldwide economic optimism and concerns about the impact of an Australian cyclone on stretched global supplies.

• Thursday, February 3rd 2011 - 22:05 UTC

  Vodafone forced to send pro-Mubarak mobile-phone text messages

  

  UK’s Vodafone was ordered to send mobile-phone text messages by the Egyptian government, urging people to confront “traitors and criminals” as demonstrators demanded the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

• Thursday, February 3rd 2011 - 22:02 UTC

  UN forecasts period of “food volatility and supply disruptions”

  

  The world is going into a period of food volatility and supply disruptions due in part to weather related problems and a backdrop of rising prices, the UN World Food Program's executive director said.

• Thursday, February 3rd 2011 - 21:56 UTC

  Santander, Euro zone largest bank helped by solid results in UK and Brazil

  

  The collapse of the Spanish property prices helped pull annual profit down 8.5% at the Euro zone largest bank Santander. Solid results from Brazil and Britain, which each account for more profit than Spain at the diversified bank, failed to calm fears about exposure to a stagnant domestic economy, struggling to shake off the worst recession in half a century.

• Thursday, February 3rd 2011 - 21:17 UTC

  With inflation pressures ‘contained’, ECB leaves interest rates unchanged

  

  European Central Bank (ECB) has kept interest rates in the Euro zone unchanged at a record low 1%, despite fears of increasing inflation. Speaking at a press conference after the rate decision, the ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet claimed that inflation pressures remained contained.

• Thursday, February 3rd 2011 - 17:31 UTC

  British scientists develop blood test for the human version of BSE (mad cow)

  

  The first reliable blood test for the fatal Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) – said to be 100,000 times more accurate than the current method – has been developed by British scientists.

• Thursday, February 3rd 2011 - 17:05 UTC

  Air traffic strong recovery in 2010, but oil prices derail 2011 prospects

  

  Air traffic increased 8.2% in the passenger business and 20.6% in freight according to the full 2010 report from the International Air Transport Association, IATA. Middle-East, Asia-Pacific and Africa regions were above average in passenger transport and Latinamerica led in cargo expansion.

• Thursday, February 3rd 2011 - 16:40 UTC

  World food prices at historic peak in January seventh month running, says FAO

  

  World food prices surged to a new historic peak in January, for the seventh consecutive month, according to the updated FAO Food Price Index, a commodity basket that regularly tracks monthly changes in global food prices.