International

• Saturday, September 5th 2009 - 06:32 UTC

  Controversy over bankers’ bonuses at Finance minister summit in London

  

  A cap on bonuses paid to London City bankers would be “enforceable” UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling warned on Friday. Proposals to curb excessive pay and bonuses are being pushed by European nations at the two-day meeting of Finance ministers from the G20 group of major economies being hosted by Mr. Darling in London.

• Saturday, September 5th 2009 - 06:14 UTC

  PM Brown hints to earlier-than-expected withdrawal from Afghanistan

  

  UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown paved the way for an earlier-than-expected withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan as he called for training of Afghan forces to be accelerated.

• Saturday, September 5th 2009 - 06:09 UTC

  Bank of England expands quantitative easing by £ 50 billion to £ 175 billion

  

  The Bank of England on Friday held interest rates at 0.5% as expected, but expanded its quantitative easing program by £50 billion to £175 billion. In a letter to the chancellor Alistair Darling, Bank of England governor Mervyn King said the move was essential to meet the central bank’s long term inflation target of 2% or 1% either side.

• Friday, September 4th 2009 - 12:57 UTC

  Recovery on sight, but bumpy road ahead, warns ECB chief

  

  The European Central Bank declared Thursday that the economic contraction in Europe is coming to an end and kept interest rates on hold at 1%. However, the ECB's president, Jean-Claude Trichet, warned the recovery will be bumpy, especially in the face of high unemployment in Europe which is now 9.5%.

• Friday, September 4th 2009 - 08:16 UTC

  Arctic temperatures are at their highest in the last 2.000 years

  

  Arctic temperatures are now higher than at any time in the last 2,000 years, research reveals. Changes to the Earth's orbit drove centuries of cooling, but temperatures rose fast in the last 100 years as human greenhouse gas emissions rose, writes BBC environment correspondent Richard Black.

• Friday, September 4th 2009 - 08:01 UTC

  Afghanistan differences again surface in UK cabinet

  

  The parliamentary aide to United Kingdom Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth has resigned over Afghanistan. In a letter to PM Gordon Brown, Eric Joyce called on the Prime Minister to make it clear to the British people that the Afghanistan campaign was “time limited”.

• Thursday, September 3rd 2009 - 10:28 UTC

  Poll shows Tory leader Cameron as next British PM with 96-seat majority

  

  Britain’s main opposition Tories could be heading for a 96-seat Commons majority at the next general election, a poll has revealed. Conservative leader David Cameron currently has a 42% share of the vote, with Labour trailing on 28% and the Liberal Democrats on 17%, according to the YouGov survey for The Sun newspaper.

• Thursday, September 3rd 2009 - 10:17 UTC

  G20 meeting anticipates clash over government spending and banks

  

  In anticipation of the G20 Finance ministers meeting in London on Friday UK Chancellor Alistair Darling insisted that world governments need to keep spending to ensure recovery from the global economic crisis.

• Thursday, September 3rd 2009 - 10:10 UTC

  EU hedge funds regulations threaten London’ position as global financial hub

  

  EU plans to regulate hedge funds are a “blatant attack” on London's role as an international financial centre, the mayor of the city has said. Boris Johnson added that suspicions ministers in Paris and Berlin were using the proposals to deliberately target London were “not unfounded”.

• Thursday, September 3rd 2009 - 07:10 UTC

  China first to buy 50 billion USD in IMF bonds

  

  China has agreed to buy the first International Monetary Fund bonds for about 50 billion dollars, the IMF said Wednesday. IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, Yi Gang, signed the agreement in Washington.