International

• Sunday, November 18th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Ban challenge with stark new warning on climate change

  

  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has challenged the world's policymakers to start devising a comprehensive deal for tackling climate change at next month's summit in Bali, Indonesia, after a United Nations report released today found that global warming is unequivocal and could cause irreversible damage to the planet.

• Saturday, November 17th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Chavez warns US at Opec summit but is rebuked by Saudis

  

  In his opening address at a rare Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) summit in the Saudi capital, Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, has warned the US over rising oil prices.

• Friday, November 16th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Sustainable tourism to contain climate change, warns UN

  

  United Nations World Tourism Organisation secretary-general Francesco Frangialli issued his strongest warning yet of the threat to the industry. ”A rise in global temperatures beyond 2C will threaten the existence of our industry.

• Friday, November 16th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Environment friendly tourism promoted at London travel fair

  

  The world's largest travel fair opened this week in London with a strong focus on green issues highlighting the ever-increasing pressure on the tourism industry to promote environmentally friendly ways of seeing the world.

• Friday, November 16th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  “Weak US dollar” at the heart of the OPEC Riyadh summit

  

  A blunder by OPEC on Friday exposed serious discrepancies between Saudi Arabia and Iran about whether the oil exporters' group should address the issue of the falling dollar at a rare summit of leaders this weekend in Riyadh.

• Friday, November 16th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Chinese markets prepare for tighter and costlier credit

  

  Chinese spending on factories, roads and other fixed assets has risen by 27% this year suggesting official efforts to restrain the economy are failing and a new hike in interest rates can be expected.

• Thursday, November 15th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Australians fear for only known white humpback whale

  

  Australians fear that the world's only known white humpback whale could be slaughtered as Japan's whaling fleet prepares to embark on its annual hunt in the Southern Ocean, reports the Sydney press.

• Thursday, November 15th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Beijing confirms US dollar as the leading global currency

  The US dollar will remain the main currency for China's massive foreign reserves despite earlier suggestions that the weakening greenback weighed too heavily, a senior Chinese central bank official said here Wednesday.

• Thursday, November 15th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Warning on US/EU interest rate gap and fund flows

  The US dollar's weakness has benefits for global imbalances, but fund inflows to the United States could shrink if the gap between U.S. and Euro-zone interest rates reverses, warned Bank of Japan board member Atsushi Mizuno.

• Thursday, November 15th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  OPEC: no output increase decision until December

  

  The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ruled out an output increase in the coming summit and said that the surge in global fuel prices can not be tracked to shortage of oil in the market and certainly not because of the fast-growing Indian and Chinese economies.