The UK Government is to launch a new crackdown on money laundering amid warnings that a century old business scheme designed to help Scottish farmers is being exploited by foreign criminals. Scottish limited partnerships (SLPs) were first created in 1907 for farm holdings, but ministers say their legal structure makes them attractive money laundering vehicles for international crime groups.
Britain's interior minister, Home Secretary, Amber Rudd resigned on Sunday amid claims she misled lawmakers over whether her department held targets for removing illegal immigrants in the country. “The prime minister has tonight accepted the resignation of the home secretary,” said a spokesman for the office of premier Theresa May.
Brazilian president Michel Temer was again forced to suspend a trip to Asia which was scheduled for next week. The head of state had originally planned to travel last January but had to suspend it following on medical advice.
Mr Jamie Bowden CMG OBE MVO has been appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Chile in succession to Ms Fiona Clouder. Mr Bowden will take up his appointment in June 2018.
Argentina's central bank surprised markets at the end of the week by jolting its key interest rate up to 30.25% from 27.25%, citing weakness of the local peso against the US dollar and vowing to act again if high inflation persists.
UK Members of Parliament have urged Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to speak to them after evidence given by his chief technology officer was deemed unsatisfactory. A parliamentary committee said Mr Schroepfer had failed to fully answer 40 points put to him as part of an inquiry into fake news.
European Union countries voted on Friday for a near-total ban on insecticides blamed for killing off bee populations, in what campaigners called a “beacon of hope” for the winged insects. Bees help pollinate 90 percent of the world’s major crops, but in recent years have been dying off from “colony collapse disorder,” a mysterious scourge blamed on mites, pesticides, virus, fungus, or a combination of these factors.
By Gwynne Dyer - If the model is broken, should you try to fix it, or scrap it and get a new one? In questions of technology, increasingly the answer is: scrap it. Computer repair shops are dying out: if your laptop doesn't work, just buy a new one. What applies to consumer technology, however, does not necessarily apply to politics.
Friday's summit between the leaders of North and South Korea was a historic meeting paving the way for the start of a new era, North Korea's media say. North's Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in of South Korea agreed to work to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons.
Andreas Spaeth (*) The airport on the remote British Overseas Territory island St Helena, once dismissed as the “world’s most useless airport” by British media, is proving to be a reliable asset.