International

• Tuesday, October 6th 2009 - 06:38 UTC

  “Historic day” for Brazil which for the first time becomes IMF creditor

  

  Brazil became on Monday for the first time ever a creditor of the International Monetary Fund when it formalized a decision to buy 10 billion US dollars worth of IMF notes nominated in SDR.

• Tuesday, October 6th 2009 - 01:19 UTC

  Desire’s un-risked oil prospect in Falklands’ waters over 3 billion barrels

  

  Desire Petroleum prospective un-risked recoverable resources net in Falkland Islands waters are over 3 billion barrels of oil in the company’s ten top prospects according to the recently completed Competent Person’s Report, CPR and released this week.

• Monday, October 5th 2009 - 13:41 UTC

  Unesco safeguard for Andean Aymara cultural heritage

  

  Unesco’s support for the project to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage of the Aymara communities of Bolivia, Chile and Peru should be seen as an example for Latinamerica, according to Peruvian anthropologist Soledad Mujica.

• Monday, October 5th 2009 - 13:33 UTC

  Pope warns Africa about “first world toxic materialism” colonialism

  

  Pope Benedict has warned that a form of colonialism continues to blight Africa. Opening a three-week synod of African bishops, he said political colonialism was over. But he said the developed world continued to export materialism - which he called “toxic spiritual rubbish” - to the continent.

• Monday, October 5th 2009 - 13:27 UTC

  Czech under pressure to sign Lisbon Treaty following Ireland’s YES

  

  Following the decisive Yes vote by the Irish electorate, EU leaders have called on Eurosceptic Czech president Vaclav Klaus to stop holding up the democratic will of all Europeans and sign the Lisbon Treaty.

• Monday, October 5th 2009 - 13:23 UTC

  Lisbon Treaty controversy looms over the Conservative party conference

  

  Britain’s Tory leader David Cameron is fighting to prevent a damaging new rift over Europe dominating his party's final conference before the general election.

• Saturday, October 3rd 2009 - 12:05 UTC

  Russian billionaire makes London Evening Standard a free newspaper

  

  Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev is to make the London Evening Standard a free newspaper later this month, after more than 180 years as a paid-for title. Lebedev bought a controlling stake in the loss making newspaper last January for a nominal sum of £1 after almost a year of secret negotiations with Lord Rothermere's Daily Mail & General Trust.

• Saturday, October 3rd 2009 - 12:01 UTC

  IMF confirms normal relationship with Argentina “in the near future”

  

  International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn is confident that the fund will resume a “normal” relationship with Argentina soon, he said on Friday.

• Friday, October 2nd 2009 - 17:17 UTC

  Serious bribe claims against UK defence giant BAE Systems

  

  Britain’s Serious Fraud Office has demanded that defence giant BAE Systems faces prosecution over bribery allegations. The SFO will ask the Attorney General Baroness Scotland to pursue corruption claims that BAE paid out millions of pounds to win contracts overseas.

• Friday, October 2nd 2009 - 17:15 UTC

  US top commander admits insurgency is winning in Afghanistan

  

  Success in the struggle against the Taliban cannot be taken for granted and time is running out, the commander of the international forces in Afghanistan has warned. US General Stanley McChrystal said the situation in the country was “serious” - and in some respects deteriorating - with increasing violence and a growing insurgency.