International

• Monday, April 27th 2009 - 14:39 UTC

  WHO admits swine flu could become pandemic, but world “better prepared”

  

  The international community is better prepared than ever to deal with the threatened spread of a new swine flu virus, the top United Nations health chief has said. As the UN warned the outbreak might become a pandemic, World Health Organization Director-General Dr Keiji Fukuda said years of preparing for bird flu had boosted world stocks of anti-virals.

• Monday, April 27th 2009 - 14:34 UTC

  UK has enough anti-viral drugs to treat 50% of the population

  

  Health experts in Britain are on high alert to prevent the spread of a new human strain of the swine flu virus. Britain’s NHS also revealed it has a stockpile of £ 500 million of Tamiflu anti-viral drug which has proved effective on patients in Mexico where the outbreak seems to have started.

• Monday, April 27th 2009 - 14:14 UTC

  “Major rebalancing” of British forces to counter irregular warfare

  

  United Kingdom Special Forces like the SAS are to be boosted as part of a new military strategy to take on al-Qaeda and other terror networks that threaten Britain's security, Defence Secretary John Hutton is expected to announce. They are included in plans for a “major rebalancing” of the armed forces over the next 10 years.

• Monday, April 27th 2009 - 13:51 UTC

  New hope for the “critically endangered” grey whales

  

  Conservation campaigners are hailing a victory for the “critically endangered” grey whale. The groups have won agreement from some oil and gas companies in Russian waters to end seismic work, giving grey whales a chance to breed undisturbed.

• Sunday, April 26th 2009 - 19:26 UTC

  Cruise ship “Melody” fended off a pirate attack

  

  An Italian cruise ship carrying 1,200 passengers and crew fended off a pirate attack near the Seychelles, company officials said Sunday. The ship was attacked on Saturday evening by armed pirates firing shots from a small speedboat, 330 kilometres from the Seychelles where the liner had last anchored.

• Sunday, April 26th 2009 - 08:56 UTC

  World Bank-IMF open crisis talks

  

  Senior officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are meeting in Washington with an aim to combat the world's worst economic slump since the 1930s.

• Sunday, April 26th 2009 - 08:45 UTC

  Mexico swine flu spreads overseas - Alert in airports

  

  Mexico has raised the probable death toll from an outbreak of swine flu to 81, including 20 already confirmed.

• Saturday, April 25th 2009 - 10:36 UTC

  Chinese automakers tempted by the Brazilian market

  

  Chinese automaker Chery reportedly is planning a 700 million US dollars factory in Brazil to tap the country's growing market and to learn more about bio fuel engines according to Sao Paulo’s financial daily Gazeta Mercantil.

• Saturday, April 25th 2009 - 10:26 UTC

  China poised to become the world’s second economy in 2010

  

  In spite of a considerable slowdown this year, China is poised to become in 2010 the world’s second largest economy, behind United States and ahead of Japan, according to the IMF World Economic Outlook released this week.

• Saturday, April 25th 2009 - 07:20 UTC

  UK economy shrinks 1.9% in the first quarter of 2009

  

  The UK economy shrank 1.9% in the first three months of 2009, according to gross domestic product (GDP) data from the Office for National Statistics. The contraction was much worse than had been expected and was the biggest three-month decline in GDP since the third quarter of 1979.