International

• Tuesday, June 9th 2009 - 09:47 UTC

  World military expenditure in 2008 totalled 1.46 trillion, up 45% since 1999

  

  United States spent 607 billion US dollars on its military in 2008, accounting for 42% of the total world military expenditure for the year with China, France and the United Kingdom far behind, according to the 2009 Yearbook on Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, issued by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI, on Monday.

• Tuesday, June 9th 2009 - 09:33 UTC

  World celebrates “one ocean, once climate, one future”

  

  The world’s oceans generate most of the oxygen we breathe, supply us with food, regulate our climate, clean the water we drink, and offer a pharmacopoeia of potential medicines.

• Monday, June 8th 2009 - 14:04 UTC

  World airlines 'face $9bn loss'

  

  The global airline industry has nearly doubled its expected losses for the year to $9bn amid what it calls an unprecedented crisis.

• Monday, June 8th 2009 - 13:33 UTC

  Air France accelerating replacement of Airbus speed monitors

  

  Air France has said it is accelerating replacement of speed monitors on Airbus planes following the disappearance of a jet over the Atlantic six days ago.

• Monday, June 8th 2009 - 13:25 UTC

  EU Parliament election: Centre right advances at expense of the left

  

  Centre-right parties have done well in elections to the European Parliament at the expense of the left. Far-right and anti-immigrant parties also made gains, as turnout figures plunged to between 43 and 44%, according to the latest reports from BBC.

• Monday, June 8th 2009 - 13:09 UTC

  UK electorate furious: trounces Labour and main parties system

  

  Britain’s ruling Labour party has suffered its worst post-war election result as it was beaten into third place by UKIP and saw the BNP gain its first seats at Brussels. Labour's share of the vote at the European elections was just 15.3% - worse than party bosses had feared.

• Monday, June 8th 2009 - 13:04 UTC

  British far right party gains first seat (former Labour) in EU parliament

  

  British Primer Minister Gordon Brown's hopes of political survival have been dealt another blow as the far right British National Party achieved a major electoral breakthrough gaining their first seat in the European Parliament.

• Monday, June 8th 2009 - 10:16 UTC

  EC recommends UK/Spain “friendly accord” on Gibraltar waters dispute

  

  Spanish diplomatic sources have said that the PSOE Government is willing to offer an agreement on the current dispute over Gibraltar territorial waters that sets sovereignty to one side and concentrates on issues of practical cooperation.

• Sunday, June 7th 2009 - 19:16 UTC

  Chilean wine prices on sales to UK fall on average 31.2%

  

  Chilean bottled wine prices fell an average of 14.6% on the international market in April, while the quantity of bottled exports increased by 5.2%, according to a recent report by industry advocacy group Wines of Chile.

• Saturday, June 6th 2009 - 14:48 UTC

  Nuclear sub joins Flight 447 search; Iberia tailing flight sheds some light

  

  While France announced Friday it was sending a nuclear submarine to help find the flight data recorders of the Air France plane, which this week disappeared over the Atlantic, a press report in the Spanish press involving an Iberia plane on the same route but flying ten minutes behind could shed light into what really happened.