International

• Friday, March 13th 2009 - 06:23 UTC

  Surging global population adds to water crisis warns UN

  

  The surging growth in global population, climate change, widespread mismanagement and increasing demand for energy have tightened the grip on the world’s evaporating water supplies, warned a new United Nations report released today.

• Friday, March 13th 2009 - 05:41 UTC

  Prince Charles tells Brazilian hosts: A hundred months to save the planet

  

  Britain's Prince Charles currently in Brazil on a South American tour warned on Thursday that mankind has 100 months or less to save the planet from a climate-caused disaster.

• Thursday, March 12th 2009 - 08:28 UTC

  Planet Earth ever so crowded: 7 billion by early 2012

  

  The world’s population will hit 7 billion early in 2012 and top 9 billion in 2050, with the majority of the increase taking place in developing countries, according to revised United Nations estimates released today.

• Thursday, March 12th 2009 - 06:46 UTC

  Following four bullish years UN forecasts tourism industry downturn

  

  The United Nations World Tourism Organization said Wednesday that international vacation travel could drop 2% this year as the global crisis worsens. This will be particularly evident following the bullish years, 2004/07 when growth averaged 7%.

• Thursday, March 12th 2009 - 06:24 UTC

  Cristina Kirchner and PM Brown to hold bilateral meeting in Chile

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will be holding a bilateral meeting next March 27th in Viña del Mar, Chile during the progressive leaders’ forum and most probably the Falklands/Malvinas claim issue will be on the table, according to reports in Buenos Aires daily La Nación.

• Thursday, March 12th 2009 - 04:23 UTC

  UK government support for Land Rover to build new vehicle

  

  The British government has offered a grant of up to £27 million to motor giant Land Rover to build a new vehicle. The company will make a decision later this year on whether to go ahead with the £400 million project at its factory at Halewood on Merseyside.

• Thursday, March 12th 2009 - 04:17 UTC

  Chinese exports plunge 26% in February; domestic car sales up 25%

  

  Chinese exports plunged by more than a quarter in February from a year ago as the world's third-largest economy was hit by a drop in demand for its goods. Exports dropped by 25.7% to 64.9 billion US dollars compared with the same month a year earlier, while imports fell by 24.1% to 60.1 billion according to official figures.

• Thursday, March 12th 2009 - 02:40 UTC

  Norway’s sovereign fund, world’s second largest, lost 92 billion USD in 2008

  

  Norway’s Government Pension Fund suffered a 633 billion kroner equivalent to 92 billion US dollars loss on its investments in 2008. The loss, which amounts to some 125.000 kroner for every Norwegian, came after a “sharp fall in global equity prices”, head fund manager Yngve Slyngstad said Wednesday.

• Wednesday, March 11th 2009 - 23:50 UTC

  IMF chief warns of “great recession” but markets react to upbeat banking report

  

  The head of the International Monetary Fund says the world economy is likely to shrink this year throwing millions into poverty, in what some are referring to as the “Great Recession”. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told a conference in Tanzania Tuesday that sharp declines in world trade are likely to hurt African economies.

• Wednesday, March 11th 2009 - 07:13 UTC

  Global sea level rising faster than forecasted warn scientists

  

  The global sea level looks set to rise far higher than forecast because of changes in the polar ice-sheets, a team of researchers has suggested. Scientists at a climate change summit in Copenhagen said earlier UN estimates were too low and that sea levels could rise by a metre or more by 2100.