International

• Friday, October 30th 2009 - 00:46 UTC

  Shell reports sharp fall in quarterly profit with outlook “very uncertain”

  

  Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell reported Thursday its quarterly profit fell sharply, and warns the outlook remains “very uncertain”. The company said profit for the three months to September fell 73% to 3 billion US dollars from a year earlier. “We are not expecting a quick recovery,” Shell chief executive Peter Voser said.

• Friday, October 30th 2009 - 00:39 UTC

  Strong calls for banning Atlantic bluefin tuna trade

  

  Banning trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna is justified by the extent of their decline, an analysis by scientists advising fisheries regulators suggests. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas' (ICCAT) advisers said stocks are probably less than 15% of their original size.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 10:16 UTC

  UK petrol prices at their highest level of the year

  

  Petrol prices in the United Kingdom are now at their highest level of the year, according to the AA. Average UK prices at the pumps are now 107.14p a litre - beating the previous 2009 high of 107.03p a litre on September 9.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 10:08 UTC

  Norway first in Europe to raise interest rates

  

  Norway has become the first European country to raise its interest rates since the beginning of the global financial crisis. The country's central bank raised the cost of borrowing to 1.5% from 1.25% in a widely-expected move.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 06:58 UTC

  British MPs nervous about plans to “clean up” Parliament expenses excesses

  

  The man brought in by British Primer Minister Gordon Brown to clean up Parliament does not live in the real world, an MP has said. Sir Christopher Kelly, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, does not know the hours MPs work or what kind of job they do, said Conservative MP Roger Gale.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 06:54 UTC

  EC approves UK’s Northern Rock split into a “good” bank and a “bad” bank

  

  The European Commission has approved the Government's plans for splitting United Kingdom’s Northern Rock in two: a “good” bank and a “bad” bank. The “good” bank will continue Northern Rock's economic activities, while the “bad” bank will become in effect an asset management company running down the remaining toxic assets.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 06:48 UTC

  Spanish mayor promises closer people to people relations with Gibraltar

  

  Alejandro Sanchez the newly elected mayor of La Linea, the Spanish city next to Gibraltar, has declared he wants to intensify cross border relations and foster increased contacts between groups, associations and professional bodies on both sides of the frontier.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 05:16 UTC

  EU adopts new tools to fight illegal fishing

  

  The European Commission (EC) adopted a regulation establishing the implementing rules to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. This norm had been approved in 2008 by the European Union (EU) ministers.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 02:32 UTC

  Massive support for French farmers; Sarkozy blasts commodities speculation

  

  French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a 650-million Euro exceptional aid plan for France's subsidized but still struggling farmers, along with one billion Euros in cheap loans. He also called on the European Commission to limit market speculation on agricultural commodities prices.

• Wednesday, October 28th 2009 - 14:26 UTC

  Science explains why red wine with red meat, white wine with fish

  

  A team of Japanese scientists found the scientific reason for one of the rules of thumb about the pairing between wine and food: “Red wine with red meat, white wine with fish”.