International

• Wednesday, February 14th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Where do rich countries' children fare worse? US & UK

  

  United States and Britain ranked at the bottom of a U.N. survey of child welfare in 21 wealthy countries that assessed everything from infant mortality to whether children ate dinner with their parents or were bullied at school.

• Wednesday, February 14th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Nisshin Maru Japanese whaling ship catches fire

  

  Japanese whaling ship has caught fire near Antarctica, leaving one crew member missing and raising fears of environmental damage.

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

  Oil production costs rise 53%

  

  The cost of producing oil and gas has risen about 53 percent in the past two years, and the trend is expected to continue this year, according to a report released yesterday.

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

  Shipowners order US$105.5B of new vessels in 2006

  

  According to London-based Clarkson, the world's biggest shipbroker, shipowners ordered new vessels worth a record US$105.5 billion in 2006. The trend has been spurred by tanker owners keen to upgrade their fleets ahead of IMO single-hull tanker deadlines that kick in at the end of the decade, according to an article published by Gulf News.

• 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