The Prefect for the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, has appointed Fr Hugh Allan OPraem, Prior of Norbertine Community of St Philip's Priory, Chelmsford, as the new Apostolic Administrator of the Prefecture of the Falkland Islands and Ecclesiastical Superior of the Missions sui iuris of the islands of Ascension, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha ad quinquennium (for a period of five years).
The Federal Reserve, on Wednesday following a two-day meeting, and with two members dissenting, left interest rates unchanged but anticipated the FOMC “judges that the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has continued to strengthen, but decided, for the time being, to wait for some further evidence of continued progress toward its objectives”.
The European Union and Canada signed a free trade agreement on Sunday that aims to generate jobs and growth though it must still clear some 40 national and regional parliaments in Europe in the coming years to enter fully into force.
Brazilian president Michel Temer said that Portugal and Spain are determined to help speed trade negotiations between Mercosur and the European Union. Temer made the announcement on hosting Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa who was on a brief visit to Brazil for the Community of Portuguese Language Countries summit in Brasilia.
Tuesday saw the first ever state visit by a Colombian president to the UK. Nobel Peace Prize laureate, President Juan Manuel Santos is visiting for three days as an official guest of Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. He will have a working lunch with Prime Minister Theresa May, visit Belfast and attend events at Mansion House, the Natural History Museum and his old university, the LSE.
For the first time ever, an annual Latin American Summit has endorsed Spain’s position on Gibraltar. Spain’s Secretary of State for International Cooperation in Latin America confirmed that the 32 countries attending have supported Spain’s call to the United Kingdom to start bilateral sovereignty talks over the Rock.
Concerned about how the UK’s departure from the European Union over the next two years will impact their communities, leaders from the British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean have agreed to form a group to focus on the whole question of Brexit, reports the region's media.
Scientists have transformed the humble spinach plant into a bomb detector. By embedding tiny tubes in the plants' leaves, they can be made to pick up chemicals called nitro-aromatics, which are found in landmines and buried munitions. Real-time information can then be wirelessly relayed to a handheld device.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney says he will step down in June 2019. It means he will serve one additional year beyond the five-year term he committed to when he took the post, but will still be two years short of the usual eight years governors serve.
The UK economy grew by 0.5% in the three months after the Brexit vote, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. The figure for July to September was down from the 0.7% growth recorded in the second quarter of 2016 - the months before Britain voted to leave the European Union.