International

• Monday, April 12th 2010 - 05:23 UTC

  Market test for Greece’s Euro zone and IMF 51 billion USD “soft” loan aid

  

  European finance officials agreed Sunday to make an estimated 41 billion US dollars in loans available to Greece to help fight the threat of default. The loans would be charged at below-market rates to enable Athens to keep its borrowing costs down as it struggles to raise money to finance its runaway public debt.

• Monday, April 12th 2010 - 05:07 UTC

  Gibraltar’s air link with Madrid ceases as Spanish airline goes bankrupt

  

  The bumpy journey of the Spanish airline Andalus Líneas Aéreas has come to an abrupt end following on the week end’s confirmation that the Madrid-Gibraltar air link had been indefinitely suspended, according to an article from the Gibraltar Chronicle.

• Saturday, April 10th 2010 - 05:05 UTC

  Rio Tinto joins competitors; agrees to three months iron ore contracts

  

  Rio Tinto has followed rival mining firms and says it is negotiating new iron ore supply contracts priced for three months rather than a year. The move ends years of tradition and is seen as a demonstration of the power the miners have over their customers.

• Saturday, April 10th 2010 - 04:58 UTC

  South Korea confirms several cases of foot and mouth disease

  

  South Korea's Agriculture ministry said Saturday that it has confirmed two more foot-and-mouth outbreaks on Ganghwa Island, 58 kilometres west of Seoul.

• Saturday, April 10th 2010 - 04:44 UTC

  Argentina announces debt-swap and invites US corporations to invest

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, CFK, speaking before the United States Chamber of Commerce confirmed that the debt-swap is to be launched between Wednesday and Thursday of next week and strongly praised Argentina’s conditions “for making business and investing”.

• Saturday, April 10th 2010 - 04:40 UTC

  Default “not an issue” for Greece, says ECB’s Trichet, but are markets convinced

  

  Greek bonds and banking stocks took a massive hit on Thursday, driving the debt-stricken Euro zone member's borrowing costs to the highest level since Greece adopted the Euro currency.

• Friday, April 9th 2010 - 02:51 UTC

  China enthusiastic about reaching agreement over Argentine soybean oil

  

  Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister, Li Jinzhang, assured that China is “highly enthusiastic” about reaching an agreement to unlock the trade soybean oil conflict between Argentina and the Asian giant, according to Chinese media.

• Friday, April 9th 2010 - 02:49 UTC

  Gibraltar and Foreign Office disagree on waters’ “sovereignty” or “control”

  

  Britain and Gibraltar will use different legal arguments in challenging the European Commission’s decision to twice approve a Spanish nature site with British Gibraltar waters. While Gibraltar is focusing on British sovereignty of the waters, Britain itself has centred its case on the issue of control, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

• Friday, April 9th 2010 - 00:52 UTC

  The Uruguayan 2003 controlled default model, a way out for Greece?

  The Uruguayan default model of 2003, under the auspices of the IMF, is a possible way out for the Greek situation according to Professor Reinhart (*), a world authority in sovereign defaults. The idea surfaced in an interview with the Telegraph.co.uk, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard who has covered world politics and economics for 25 years, based in Europe, the US, and Latin America.

• Thursday, April 8th 2010 - 23:42 UTC

  US/China hold talks on “economic relations” and global situation

  

  US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner held talks Thursday in Beijing with Vice-Premier Wang Qishan. Neither the US nor Chinese officials would comment in detail on the meeting. But it is understood to be part of a long-running dispute over the value of the Chinese Yuan, which the US says has been kept artificially low.