International

• 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”.

• Tuesday, January 5th 2010 - 12:52 UTC

  Brazil’s main financial group has set eyes on UK’s rescued banks

  

  Brazil’s leading private banking institution Itaú-Unibanco denied London press reports it was interested in block-buying into UK banks that were saved from collapse in 2008 by the British government, as well as banks in other countries including United States, but admitted an interest in shares

• Tuesday, January 5th 2010 - 12:35 UTC

  China buys into Canada’s tar sands; Angola signs oilfield deals with Iraq

  

  Canada's Industry Minister, Tony Clement, has given PetroChina the go-ahead for a 1.7 billion US dollars acquisition of two oil sand projects.

• Tuesday, January 5th 2010 - 12:19 UTC

  Illegal immigrants working for British government sensitive offices

  

  Hundreds of illegal immigrants have been working for the British Government in some of the country's most sensitive offices. Some 349 illegal foreign staff have been given jobs with Whitehall departments, councils and NHS Trusts over the past four years.

• Thursday, December 31st 2009 - 12:18 UTC

  Dear MercoPress subscribers and readers:

  

  MercoPress wishes all subscribers and readers a very prosperous New Year, hoping 2010 will definitively help to lift the world out of global recession.

• Thursday, December 31st 2009 - 07:46 UTC

  When Japan assigned 20 “karate-ladies” to protect Margaret Thatcher

  

  Japan was asked not to greet Britain's first female prime minister with a security escort of 20 “karate ladies”, newly-released British government papers show. Margaret Thatcher visited Tokyo for an economic summit in June 1979 - a month after winning the general election.

• Thursday, December 31st 2009 - 05:46 UTC

  Spain names first director for the Instituto Cervantes in Gibraltar

  

  Francisco Oda-Angel, the former director of the Instituto Transfronterizo will be officially assuming his post as the first director of the Gibraltar branch of the Instituto Cervantes (equivalent of the British Council) as from January 1st 2010, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

• Thursday, December 31st 2009 - 04:47 UTC

  Sub zero temperatures across Britain will welcome the New Year

  

  Revellers are gearing up to give a warm welcome to 2010 even though sub-zero temperatures are expected across Britain. Final preparations are being made for huge fireworks displays to usher in the New Year in London and Glasgow.

• Thursday, December 31st 2009 - 04:35 UTC

  Amsterdam airport to install full-body scanners for flights to US

  

  Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport will begin using full-body scanners within three weeks to scan people travelling to the United States after consultations with US authorities, the Dutch interior minister said on Wednesday.

• Wednesday, December 30th 2009 - 09:59 UTC

  Special New Year with a blue moon in the Americas and partial eclipse in Asia

  

  The blue moon has long been a subject of poetry and one of those phrases that are used without quite understanding the meaning, but its presence is a scientific marker for a rotating earth that runs by its own clock, ignoring man’s calendar.