International

• Friday, December 7th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Australia plans radical changes to fisheries management

  Fishermen would make even more money than previously thought if they let depleted stocks rebuild, according to research from Australia and the United States. When fish are more plentiful it becomes easier and cheaper to catch them.

• Thursday, December 6th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Inflation's political and social impact rattles Beijing

  China said Wednesday it would tighten monetary policy in 2008 for the first time in a decade, as it battles to rein in a soaring stock market and an overheated economy. The shift from “prudent” to “tight” is a move analysts consider “significant”, but no major details to support the announcement were delivered.

• Thursday, December 6th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Steve Irwin becomes battle name against Japanese whaling

  

  A conservation group that has vowed to disrupt Japan's annual whale hunt launched its Antarctic campaign Wednesday by renaming one of its ships after “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, the late environmental campaigner.

• Thursday, December 6th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Bank of England cuts rate to 5.5% on slow growth concern

  

  The Bank of England announced Thursday a 25 points cut in the key interest rate from 5.75 to 5.5% following on fears of a slowing UK economy. The decision came as the BoE tried to strike a balance between rising inflation and further evidence that the housing boom is slowing and consumer confidence deteriorating.

• Thursday, December 6th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  UN climate meeting working on pos Kyoto Protocol roadmap

  

  Special negotiating groups created this week at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali are discussing the elements of a future roadmap for tackling the problem, technology transfer, deforestation and practical action on adaptation strategies for countries coping with adverse effects.

• 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.