International

• Thursday, January 29th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Southern Ocean climate fix remains afloat

  

  Plans to curb climate change by using plankton to draw carbon dioxide into the world's oceans have been boosted.

• Thursday, January 29th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  China builds station on Antarctica's highest icecap

  

  China set up this week its third Antarctic research station, also the country's first on the continent's inland. Kunlun station was erected at Dome Argus (Dome A), the South Pole's highest icecap at 4,093 metres above the sea level, reports the Beijing press.

• Thursday, January 29th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Broadband Internet access for all UK homes by 2012

  

  Every home in the UK is to have broadband internet access by 2012 under Government plans. Lord Carter's Digital Britain report proposed to scrap BT's obligation to ensure every home has access to a telephone line and replace it with a requirement to provide broadband

• Wednesday, January 28th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Germany agrees on Merkel's “most difficult decision”

  

  Germany's cabinet sealed a multi-billion stimulus package on Tuesday aimed at hauling Europe's biggest economy out of what is feared could be its worst slump for six decades.

• Wednesday, January 28th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Spanish bank Santander will pay back for Madoff

  

  Two law firms have filed a class action lawsuit in the United States against Spain's Banco Santander and one of its subsidiaries to recover money lost in an alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme orchestrated by U.S. financier Bernard Madoff.

• Wednesday, January 28th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  IMF forecasts UK economy to contract 2.8% this year

  The United Kingdom is expected to suffer the worst slump of all advanced nations in the “deepest recession since the Second World War”, according to the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook.

• Wednesday, January 28th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Credit rating agencies admit errors before UK Parliament

  

  Credit and risk rating agencies have admitted errors were made when assessing some of the financial instruments that have been blamed for the credit crunch. Representatives of the three main agencies - Standard & Poor's, Fitch, Moodys - were grilled by the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee

• Tuesday, January 27th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Tourism industry expected to contract up to 2% this year

  

  International tourist arrivals in 2008 increased 2% over the previous year but with the advance of the global crisis the rate of growth in the second half came to a stand still and turned negative, a tendency which is expected to continue in 2009, --possibly between 0 and minus 2%--, according to the latest report form the World Tourism Organizations.

• Monday, January 26th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  UK recession “predictor” warns of 3 m unemployment

  

  The economist whose recession warnings and calls for interest rate cuts were snubbed by Bank of England colleagues warned in an interview he feared UK unemployment could hit three million in a year's time.

• Monday, January 26th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  UN Human Rights Commissioner warns of genocide threat

  

  Cautioning that the threat of genocide still remains over half a century after millions of lives were brutally cut short by the Holocaust, the United Nations human rights chief said the memory of its victims should serve as a reminder of the need to act quickly and decisively at the first signs of such crimes.