International

• Tuesday, January 12th 2010 - 03:37 UTC

  Ashton promises “one coherent strategy” for EU foreign policy

  

  The European Union is in a position to assume a “stronger, more credible role in the world,” the nominee for the EU top foreign policy post says. The UK's Catherine Ashton was speaking to Euro MPs, who have started grilling the commissioners-designate on their new roles and qualifications.

• Monday, January 11th 2010 - 12:46 UTC

  China will construct Bolivia’s first satellite; Morales travels to Beijing

  

  Bolivian president Evo Morales will be travelling to China next March to sign an agreement for the construction and launching of the country’s first telecommunications satellite, reported Bolivian government sources on Sunday.

• Saturday, January 9th 2010 - 14:01 UTC

  Mr. Bean, the Spanish EU presidency and the next six months

  

  Spanish diplomacy, authorities and the press have repeatedly insisted, with a certain degree of optimism, that with Madrid holding the six-month presidency of the EU, Latinamerica will be a priority.

• Saturday, January 9th 2010 - 13:27 UTC

  Swiss regulators “violated” the law by handing bank information to the US

  

  Swiss financial regulator FINMA violated the law by authorising UBS to hand over details of 300 clients to US authorities, a Swiss court has ruled.

• Saturday, January 9th 2010 - 08:44 UTC

  Euro-zone officially out of recession but with record 10% unemployment

  

  The unemployment rate in Euro-zone counties is currently running at 10%, its highest since August 1998, according to the statistics agency Eurostat. In November last year, another 102,000 people lost their jobs, bringing the overall figure above 15.7 million.

• Saturday, January 9th 2010 - 08:29 UTC

  Anti-whaling activists call for criminal investigation into sinking of protest boat

  

  Anti-whaling activists have asked the Dutch public prosecutor to launch a criminal investigation into a clash between protesters and Japanese whalers in Antarctic waters which led to the sinking of a protest boat.

• Friday, January 8th 2010 - 08:08 UTC

  China surprise move to control liquidity sends markets plunging

  

  China's central bank surprised markets on Thursday by raising the interest rate on its three-month bills for the first time since August, intensifying its grip on liquidity a day after it promised to keep credit growth in check.

• 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.