International

• Sunday, December 28th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Security Council calls for immediate end to Gaza violence

  The United Nations Security Council on Sunday called on Israel and the Palestinians to immediately end all violence as Israeli air-strikes in response to rocket attacks by militants in Gaza reportedly killed 270 people and wounded more than 600 in the Strip.

• Sunday, December 28th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  British bishops call Labour policies “morally corrupt”

  The British Government was embroiled in another row with the Church of England after bishops condemned its policies as “morally corrupt”. Five senior Church figures delivered a scathing assessment of Labour's record in power, warning that the country was suffering from family breakdown, an addiction to debt and a growing gap between rich and poor.

• Saturday, December 27th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Tainted milk: Chinese dairies to compensate 300.000 children

  

  Chinese dairy firms involved in the tainted milk scandal are to compensate the families of the nearly 300,000 affected children, state media said. Twenty-two companies will make an undisclosed one-off cash payment to the families Xinhua reported quoting the China Dairy Industry Association.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Recession will 'set British economy back five years'

  

  Households must not rule out the prospect that the UK's economy shrinks by between 5 per cent and 10 per cent next year if the financial crisis sets off an even more vicious cycle of cutbacks, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  War reparations' claim divides Germany and Italy

  Germany has filed a complaint against Italy at the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Italian judgments awarding damages to victims of Nazi war crimes on the grounds that it has already paid reparations under international treaties with Italy.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Russia devalues rouble, and prepared “to address crisis”

  Russia has devalued its currency, the rouble, for the third time this week and the seventh time this month. It takes it to its lowest value against the US dollar since January 2006.
  
  The Russian currency has been hit by the price of oil, which is Russia's main export. Oil prices are more than 100 US dollars a barrel below their July peak.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Christmas celebration with Emma Darwin's Recipe Book

  A cookbook based on notes by Charles Darwin's wife Emma, has been published in Britain, a fascinating testimony of Victorian times. Emma Darwin's Recipe Book features more than 40 dishes from her personal cookery notebook, which is housed in Cambridge University Library.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Industrial production in Japan drops record 8% in November

  Official figures have revealed that Japanese manufacturing has dropped at its fastest rate on record, with companies closing factories and cutting jobs. Industrial output in Japan plummeted by a record 8% in November compared with the previous month.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Vancouver, best place in the world to live; in Latam, Montevideo

  

  Vancouver is the world's best place to live, a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has found. In Latinamerica Montevideo, Santiago and Buenos Aires are the most “liveable” although none of them offers ideal conditions.

• Thursday, December 25th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Economic woes and insecurity underlined in Queen's message

  

  Britain's economic problems and the “insecurity” people are feeling in today's uncertain times were acknowledged by the Queen in her Christmas Day message.