By Gwynne Dyer - ”The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable”, said John Kenneth Galbraith, the wisest American economist of his generation. (“A paltry honor,” he would have murmured.)
Argentine foreign minister Héctor Timerman submitted on Tuesday his “indeclinable” resignation as an affiliate of AMIA, the Argentine Israel organization that is at the center of an ongoing controversy since 1994, when it suffered Argentina's worst terrorist attack with the loss of 85 lives and over 300 injured in downtown Buenos Aires.
The Falkland Islands maintain strong regulatory oversight on all oil and gas operations and its offshore safety regime is based on the North Sea’s Safety Case regulatory structure, recognized as one of the highest standards in the world, said the Falklands' government in a release following concerns related to technical issues on the rig Eirik Raude, currently operating in the South Atlantic.
A controversial artificial sweetener is being removed from Diet Pepsi in the US amid consumer concerns about its safety. Aspartame-free cans of the drink will go on sale from August in America, but not in Britain. However regulators in the UK and the US insist aspartame is still safe to use in soft drinks.
Tony Mason, Director, International Communications and Stephanie Middleton, Interim CEO of the Falkland Islands Tourist Board are in Rotterdam, Netherlands this week attending the IAATO conference where key issues affecting the region will be discussed.
Australia has intercepted in the Southern Ocean the fishing vessel Perlon, believed to have been operating under a false flag in defiance of international conventions, according to an official report from the Ministry of Immigration and Border Protection.
There was both good and bad news for France in this week’s annual report on the outlook of the wine industry by the International Organization of Wine and Vine (OIV).
Fitch cut its credit rating for heavily indebted Japan by one notch on Monday, saying it has not done enough to plug a budget gap left by its decision to delay the second stage of a sales tax hike.
A senior executive at state energy firm China Sinopec Group is under investigation for suspected serious disciplinary violations. The China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) named Wang Tianpu, an oil industry veteran and president of Sinopec Group, in a statement on its website. Sinopec Group is the parent of Sinopec Corp, Asia's largest oil refiner.
Progress towards global vaccination targets for 2015 is far off track with 1 in 5 children still missing out on routine life-saving immunizations that could avert 1.5 million deaths each year from preventable diseases. In the lead-up to World Immunization Week 2015 (24 -30 April), the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for renewed efforts to get progress back on course.