International

• Wednesday, December 5th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  OPEC maintains oil output; quotas to new members

  

  OPEC froze oil output levels on Wednesday, resisting calls for a hike to help cool sky-high prices that have flirted with 100 dollars and which threaten to dampen global economic growth.

• Wednesday, December 5th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  English and skill tests for non EU immigrants to UK

  

  Unskilled workers from countries outside the European Union will no longer be allowed to work in the UK under new immigration rules that the government says represent the “biggest change to the immigration system in its history”.

• Tuesday, December 4th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  New Australian government ratifies Kyoto Protocol

  

  Australia signed on Sunday the instrument of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol which means the country will become a full member of the protocol early next year. It was incoming Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd first official act of his new government.

• Tuesday, December 4th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  UN appeals for ongoing fight to eradicate landmines

  

  On the tenth anniversary of the landmark international anti-mine treaty this Tuesday December 3, Ban Ki-moon urged the world's peoples and governments to continue the fight to abolish anti-personnel landmines.

• Tuesday, December 4th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Bali climate change conference takes off with warning

  

  The largest ever conference on climate change has opened on the Indonesian island of Bali with more than 10.000 delegates from 192 countries attending. The two weeks of United Nations led talks are intended to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which expires 2012.

• Monday, December 3rd 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  OPEC meeting in Abu Dhabi divided over pumping more oil

  

  Oil prices rebounded Monday as speculation grew that OPEC may decide to leave output unchanged at a meeting this week in Abu Dhabi. New York's light sweet crude for January delivery, closed at 89.31 dollars per barrel and in London Brent North Sea crude jumped 1.54 dollars to settle at 89.80 dollars.

• Sunday, December 2nd 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Euro markets with “sufficient liquidity” until January, says ECB

  

  The European Central Bank announced Friday it would continue to supply markets with sufficient liquidity until the end of the year to keep short term interest rates the closest possible to the reference rate.

• Sunday, December 2nd 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Global leaders call for end to complacency on World AIDS Day

  

  Activists and global leaders used World AIDS Day Saturday to warn against complacency in fighting the disease and called on governments to fill a multi-billion-dollar funding gap.

• Sunday, December 2nd 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali “to save the planet”

  

  ”I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Indonesian government for its generous invitation to host the thirteenth United Nations Climate Change Conference on the island of Bali 3 – 14 December. I also extend a warm welcome to the international community who will join us at this major event said Yvo de Boer UNFCCC Executive Secretary

• Friday, November 30th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Booming S. Korea, 11th largest trading country in 2007

  

  South Korea is expected to edge past Hong Kong to become the 11th largest trading nation in the world this year, the Seoul government agency Yonhap reported on Friday.