International

• Tuesday, February 13th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Eurozone growth surprises all 2006 forecasts: 2.7%

  

  Eurozone growth ended 2006 strongly, thanks to better-than-expected growth in Germany and recovery in Italy. Gross domestic product across the 13 countries that use the euro grew 0.9% between October and December, compared with the previous three months.

• Tuesday, February 13th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Deep sea giant squid flash blinding light to attack prey

  

  Enormous deep-sea squid emit blinding flashes of light as they attack their prey, research shows. Taningia danae's spectacular light show was revealed in video footage taken in deep waters off Chichijima Island in the North Pacific and reported by BBC.

• Monday, February 12th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Spain accepts Gibraltar phone code and travel documents

  

  Telephone calls between Spain and Gibraltar have gone international, following the acceptance by Spain from this weekend of Gibraltar's international dialling code, reported the local press.

• Sunday, February 11th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  G 7 demand more exchange rate flexibility for China's Yuan

  

  Finance ministers and bankers from the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries, G7, renewed pressure on China to relax controls over its currency. China promised more flexibility but gave no indication of time or percentages.

• Sunday, February 11th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  British tycoon offers price $ 25 million to clean up atmosphere

  

  As if offering flights to space and recently hosting his own reality show were not enough to get British billionaire Sir Richard Branson the publicity he so richly affords, this week he has gone over the heads of environmental leaders everywhere to offer a US$ 25 million prize for the first scientist who can invent an economically viable way to clean carbon from Earth's atmosphere.

• Saturday, February 10th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Emerging markets diversity outpaces JP Morgan

  

  JP Morgan's family of EMBI (Emerging Markets Bond Index) indexes, once seen as the most important measure of aversion to developing countries' risk, no longer expresses the diversity of fast-growing emerging markets, the bank admitted in a report

• Saturday, February 10th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  UK Farmers urge ban on poultry imports

  

  Farmers are calling for a ban on raw imported poultry meat from countries infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus until the cause of the UK outbreak has been established.

• Friday, February 9th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  G 7 Ministers address world financial markets' stability

  

  Europe's concern with the stability of world financial markets is one of the main issues to be addressed by the seven most industrialized countries Finance ministers meeting, G-7, which is meeting in Germany and will see China participate for the first time in the main debates.

• Thursday, February 8th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  ECB warns about medium term risks to price stability

  

  The European Central Bank, ECB, decided Thursday to keep its key interest rate on hold at 3.5%, but pointed out that “strong vigilance” remains essential to ensure that “risks to price stability over the medium term do not materialize”.

• Thursday, February 8th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Bank of England leaves rates unchanged at 5.25%

  

  The Bank of England left interest rates unchanged at 5.25% following a surprise rise last month. In January, the Bank increased rates from 5.0% to 5.25% in an attempt to curb inflation, which had hit an 11-year high of 3% the month before.