International

• Friday, October 2nd 2009 - 05:12 UTC

  Next round of EU/Mercosur trade association talks in May in Madrid

  

  The European Union and Mercosur have suspended negotiations for an association agreement, basically on trade issues, admitted Geoffrey Barrett head of the European Commission delegation for Uruguay and Paraguay.

• Thursday, October 1st 2009 - 16:01 UTC

  US government relaxes control over internet

  

  The US government has relaxed its control over how the internet is run. It has signed a four-page “affirmation of commitments” with the net regulator Icann, giving the body autonomy for the first time.

• Thursday, October 1st 2009 - 15:58 UTC

  UK leading banks accept international-agreed curbs on bonuses

  

  Britain's five biggest banks have signed up to new internationally-agreed curbs on bonuses, it has been announced. Chancellor Alistair Darling welcomed the decision by the banks to accept the principles agreed last week at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

• Thursday, October 1st 2009 - 15:50 UTC

  Gibraltar waters dispute “caught the UK government asleep at the wheel”

  

  Graham Watson, South West England and Gibraltar’s Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament vowed to hold Britain to account over the Gibraltar waters controversy with Spain, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

• Thursday, October 1st 2009 - 10:52 UTC

  Wealth of US richest 400 down 330 billion USD

  

  The collective wealth of the richest 400 US citizens has fallen by 300 billion US dollars over the past year, according to the latest Forbes 400 rich list. With downturn in the financial markets and wider economy taking its toll, this is an annual decline of 19%.

• Thursday, October 1st 2009 - 05:33 UTC

  The crisis is still here: IMF warns loan losses could rise forced by unemployment

  

  The International Monetary Fund lowered its estimate for global write-downs for banks and other financial institutions to roughly 3.4 trillion US dollars but warned that loan losses could rise in the face of stubbornly high unemployment and associated delinquencies.

• Thursday, October 1st 2009 - 05:07 UTC

  Four million HIV positive people receiving life-saving treatment

  

  More than 4 million people in low-and middle-income countries were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) at the close of 2008, representing a 36% increase in one year and a ten-fold increase over five years, according to a new report released by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

• Wednesday, September 30th 2009 - 13:37 UTC

  Falklands’ government “integral part” of discussions with Argentina

  

  Even when Argentina ignores Falkland Islanders and the Islands’ elected government and privileges the United Kingdom, “we are always integral part to the three legged discussions” pointed out former member of the Legislative Assembly Andrea Clausen in an interview with the Argentine press.

• Wednesday, September 30th 2009 - 08:03 UTC

  European Commission rejects use of designation for territorial disputes

  

  In a parliamentary response on the issue of Gibraltar waters last week, the European Commission said EU environmental designations should not be used to resolve territorial disputes, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

• Wednesday, September 30th 2009 - 07:59 UTC

  Britain’s second quarter performance not as bad as expected

  

  The recession in Britain was not as deep as previously feared between April and June, official figures have confirmed. UK output shrank by 0.6% during the quarter - the second upward revision to official figures since July - the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.