Stories for February 2013

Saturday, February 9th 2013 - 09:01 UTC
EU agreement on multi-annual budget with a 3.3% reduction for the time

After lengthy talks in Brussels European leaders have reached an agreement on the budget for 2014-20 with a ceiling of 960 billion Euros, the first time the EU multi-annual budget has been reduced.
Saturday, February 9th 2013 - 08:53 UTC
Breathing space for Ireland as EU softens bail-out conditions

Ireland clinched a long-awaited deal to ease the burden of its bank debts, sending its borrowing costs falling to pre-crisis levels and bolstering its chances of ending its reliance on EU-IMF loans this year.
Saturday, February 9th 2013 - 08:49 UTC
Scandal extends to Europe: horsemeat in frozen lasagne and spaghetti Bolognese

British Environment secretary is to meet representatives from the Food Standards Agency and meat retailers and suppliers to discuss the horsemeat scandal. Owen Paterson said investigations into how beef products had been contaminated with horsemeat were ongoing but “the evidence so far suggests... it is either criminal activity or gross negligence”.
Saturday, February 9th 2013 - 08:41 UTC
HMS Edinburgh leaves the Falklands for the last time

Known as the ‘Fortress of the Sea’, HMS Edinburgh is the largest and the last Type 42 destroyer to serve in the Royal Navy. She finished her six month tour of the South Atlantic Islands this week and is due to be decommissioned in June, but before heading north again Falkland Islands residents were given the opportunity to have a peek on board.
Saturday, February 9th 2013 - 08:38 UTC
Financial Times gets it wrong on Falklands and Gibraltar ‘trilateral’ dialogue

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo this week wrote to the Financial Times after the respected financial daily made a glaring error about Gibraltar in an editorial column centred on Argentina.
Saturday, February 9th 2013 - 08:33 UTC
Spain disappointed with Gibraltar’s Picardo picture next to President Obama

The Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has contacted the US government to express its unease over the recent visit by the Gibraltar Government to Washington, according to reports published in Spain.
Saturday, February 9th 2013 - 00:34 UTC
Major Commonwealth parliamentary conference opens Tuesday in the Falklands

The 43rd British Islands and Mediterranean Region Annual Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association which is being hosted by the Falkland Islands for the second time will begin next Tuesday and will convene 37 delegates with Canada and Anguilla as observers.
Saturday, February 9th 2013 - 00:07 UTC
“Islanders exist: here we are”, the toast at Falkland House in London

Falkland Islands lawmaker Dick Sawle invited to toast for “the existence of the Islanders” during a reception at Falkland House in London, on Thursday evening, at the end of a hectic but productive week of contacts, interviews and intense lobbying for the Islands and the coming March referendum.
Friday, February 8th 2013 - 23:59 UTC
Falklands will reply to Mr Timerman next month, when the referendum, said Governor Haywood

Falkland Islands governor Nigel Haywood said that the “Islanders will reply in next month’s referendum” whether Argentina could be in control of the Malvinas archipelago ‘within twenty years’, as was announced by Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman earlier this week in London.
Friday, February 8th 2013 - 06:51 UTC
“No big deal with inflation, I grew up in a country with 70%/80% inflation”

Two contrasting views have surfaced in the Uruguayan government regarding inflation which has been steadily climbing and seems so far immune to monetary tools, but is now the second highest in the region behind Argentina.