International

• Monday, October 13th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  IMF: now to work on limiting damage to real economy

  

  Coordinated global action is starting to reverse the tide of the financial crisis, but governments also need to “deploy all instruments” to limit damage to the real economy, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told world financial leaders meeting in Washington.

• Sunday, October 12th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Ship breaks in two on Gibraltar rocks; crew rescued safely

  

  The 35.000 tonnes Liberian cargo ship, built in 1977 Fedra lies in two pieces adjacent to the Lighthouse at Europa Point, Gibraltar.

• Sunday, October 12th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Economic reforms for rural China include land transfer and rent

  China's Communist Party leaders agreed on a package of rural reforms that could shape the country's economic policy over the coming years. A four-day enclave including President Hu Jintao had approved “major issues” on reform, Xinhua news agency said.
  
  No details were given but it is thought farmers will now have more power to transfer or rent out their land.

• Sunday, October 12th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  IMF hails G7 accord as “first big success in coordination”

  World financial leaders endorsed on Sunday an action plan announced by the seven leading advanced economies to combat the international financial crisis in what IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn called the “first big success in coordination” to halt the downward spiral in world markets and support the global financial system.

• Saturday, October 11th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Price of crude has plunged 50% since July's peak

  The price of crude oil has now plunged by almost 50% since striking record high levels above 147 US dollars per barrel on July 11. Trading on Friday was below 80 US dollars a barrel as demand declines amid a worsening economic outlook caused by a global credit crisis.

• Friday, October 10th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Teeming biodiversity in ocean volcanoes off SE Australia

  

  CSIRO's Wealth from Oceans Flagship team has discovered hundreds of new marine species and dozens of undersea mountains, in a project to monitor the Commonwealth Marine Reserve Network off southern Tasmania.

• Friday, October 10th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Russian and eBay solutions for bankrupt Iceland

  

  In a surprise move, which reverberated across the international community, Russia issued a four billion Euro state loan to Iceland. The statement on Russia's central bank website reads that the loan maturing in three-four years and an interest rate as low as 30-50 basis points above Libor has been given the green light by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

• Friday, October 10th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Nobel Peace for “mediator” and sponsor of Kosovo

  

  The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on Friday the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008 to former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts.

• Friday, October 10th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Flurry of meetings to calm markets and unfreeze credit

  Finance ministers from leading industrialised nations have pledged action to tackle the financial crisis after a torrid week on stock markets. The G7 nations said they would take “decisive action and use all available tools”, after a meeting in Washington.
  
  They issued a five-point plan aimed at unfreezing the flow of credit.

• Friday, October 10th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  G-7: situation calls for “urgent and exceptional action”

  The Group of Seven finance ministers and central governors released on Friday, following their meeting in Washington, the following plan of action to address financial disruptions