International

• Wednesday, July 8th 2009 - 07:21 UTC

  Tokyo, Osaka, Moscow, Geneva, Hong Kong, most costly cities

  

  London no longer stands among the most expensive cities in the world to live in, as the fall in value of sterling and declining house prices have made life less expensive in the UK capital according to Mercer consultancy.

• Tuesday, July 7th 2009 - 11:17 UTC

  Lula da Silva criticizes G8 summit; calls for BRIC participation

  

  Rich countries are not living up to their pledges to help developing countries weather the effects of the global economic crisis said Brazilian president Lula da Silva, ahead of this week’s G8 meeting in Italy.

• Tuesday, July 7th 2009 - 10:01 UTC

  Possible first death of Norovirus on cruise vessel

  

  A man has died and more than 150 people have taken ill on board a cruise liner berthed in Invergordon, Easter Ross, Scotland. The vomiting bug, norovirus, is thought to have taken hold on the Marco Polo, which is touring the UK and Ireland with about 800 passengers and 350 crew members.

• Tuesday, July 7th 2009 - 09:46 UTC

  First test for China’s Yuan as trade currency

  

  China has begun a trial scheme that allows trade with its neighbours to be settled with its own currency the Yuan. Six Shanghai companies have signed contracts with counterparts in Hong Kong and Indonesia to settle deals in the currency.

• Tuesday, July 7th 2009 - 07:00 UTC

  Stiglitz calls for an open debate on the global financial reform

  

  The debate on the restructuring of the world economy can’t be limited to a “closed club”, be it the G8 or the G20, and the United Nations must play a “vital role” in those discussions said Economy Nobel Prize Joseph Stiglitz in a column published Monday in the French newspaper Les Echos.

• Monday, July 6th 2009 - 12:56 UTC

  Long live the all mighty US dollar as reserve currency, says China

  

  Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister He Yafei said on Sunday the US dollar would continue to be the world's leading reserve currency for years to come. The announcement comes before this week’s summit of the Group of Eight in Italy.

• Monday, July 6th 2009 - 09:41 UTC

  Gibraltar joins Spanish and UK officials to prepare ministerial meeting

  

  A delegation from Gibraltar with Chief Minister Peter Caruana is participating of a three day non-ministerial round of the Tripartite Forum in Madrid which is expected to prepare the ground for a full ministerial meeting of the Forum in mid-July that will include Spanish Foreign Secretary Miguel Angel Moratinos.

• Monday, July 6th 2009 - 09:31 UTC

  UK to announce sweeping banking reform this week

  

  The United Kingdom Chancellor Alistair Darling has hit out at “kamikaze” bankers for damaging the British economy and said a shake-up to be unveiled this week would prevent a repeat.

• Monday, July 6th 2009 - 09:15 UTC

  New “marketing” for British overseas aid

  

  Britain’s overseas aid is to be re-branded in a bid to raise public awareness at home and abroad and help maintain support for spending during the downturn. The Department for International Development (DFID) will use the name “UKaid” for its funding of projects in the world's poorest countries following concerns raised by Parliament.

• Saturday, July 4th 2009 - 08:19 UTC

  A/H1N1 virus “unstoppable”; vaccine access a “political question”

  

  The United Nations top health official opened a forum in Mexico on combating the A/H1N1 flu saying that the spread of the virus worldwide is now “unstoppable”. World Health Organization head Margaret Chan added that the holding of the meeting in Cancun showed confidence in Mexico, which has been hard hit.