International

• Monday, May 25th 2009 - 17:44 UTC

  Decline in freshwater fish took medieval Europe to the open seas

  Medieval European fishermen first took to the open seas in about AD1.000 as a result of a sharp decline in large freshwater fish, scientists have suggested. They say the decline was probably the result of rising population and pollution levels.

• Monday, May 25th 2009 - 17:36 UTC

  Energy efficiency cooperation agreement signed in Rome

  

  Countries accounting for 80% of energy supply and demand worldwide, including Brazil and Mexico, signed Sunday in Rome, in the framework of the G8 Energy summit, an international partnership energy efficiency cooperation agreement, IPEEC.

• Monday, May 25th 2009 - 17:31 UTC

  EU fisheries policy up for review; 80% Europe’s stocks overfished

  

  European Union fisheries ministers are in Brussels to review rules on how much fish can be caught in EU waters. The EU's executive, the European Commission, says more than 80% of Europe's fish stocks are now overfished. The global average is 28%.

• Saturday, May 23rd 2009 - 15:15 UTC

  Angry UK reaction to Spanish navy incident in Gibraltar waters

  

  Britain has told Spain that the recent incursion by a Spanish Navy vessel was an “unacceptable” violation of British sovereignty over Gibraltar waters. The complaint comes after a Spanish Navy fisheries protection vessel carried out checks on Spanish fishermen just off Gibraltar.

• Saturday, May 23rd 2009 - 15:02 UTC

  Expenses disclosure has turned Commons “unbearable” complains MP

  

  Tory leader David Cameron has criticised a Tory backbencher who claimed that MPs were victims of a “McCarthy-style witch-hunt” over their expenses claims. Nadine Dorries, who had warned there were fears that an MP could commit suicide, claimed the situation at Westminster had become “completely unbearable”.

• Friday, May 22nd 2009 - 12:18 UTC

  UK “deeply concerned” with Spanish advance of Gibraltar waters

  

  Britain’s Europe Minister, Caroline Flint, told the House of Commons this week that the British Government remained “deeply concerned” by recent developments in Europe affecting Gibraltar waters, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

• Friday, May 22nd 2009 - 08:11 UTC

  China interest in extending more loans to Petrobras but in Renmimbi

  

  China Development Bank may offer more financing to Brazil’s government managed oil and gas corporation Petrobras adding to the 10 billion US dollars extended this week, said Petrobras CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli on Thursday in New York.

• Friday, May 22nd 2009 - 01:50 UTC

  UK could loose its premium credit ratings because of soaring debt

  

  The United Kingdom’s premium credit rating is under threat without action to tackle soaring debt, a leading ratings agency has said. Standard & Poor's has warned that debt could rise to 100% of output by 2013, which could lead to the UK losing its coveted 'AAA' status.

• Friday, May 22nd 2009 - 01:42 UTC

  Steady culling of British MPs over expenses scandal practices

  

  British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been forced to defend two more of his Cabinet ministers as the expenses scandal showed little sign of abating. He insisted there was “no problem” with financial arrangements that meant Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon and Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell did not pay capital gains tax on second homes.

• Friday, May 22nd 2009 - 01:38 UTC

  End to an injustice: Gurkhas win right to settle in Britain

  

  The British government finally relented on settlement rights for the Gurkha veterans, the elite soldiers who for over two hundred years have served in the British Army, bravely fighting all over the world including the Falklands conflict of 1982.