Stories for May 2019

Monday, May 13th 2019 - 09:36 UTC
Venezuelan general calls on forces to rise against Maduro, controlled by the Cuban “communist dictatorship”

A Venezuelan general called on the country's armed forces on Sunday to rise up against President Nicolas Maduro, who has relied on the backing of the military to hold on to power despite an economic collapse.
Monday, May 13th 2019 - 09:27 UTC
A cardinal to the rescue of occupants of a property without power or hot water

A cardinal who conducts acts of charity for Pope Francis has restored power for hundreds of people in a building in Rome after climbing down a manhole and flipping a switch, local media report.
Monday, May 13th 2019 - 09:23 UTC
UN Guterres on tour of Pacific islands threatened by rising sea levels caused by climate change

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has kicked off a major United Nations push for progress on what he calls the defining issue of our time: climate change. Guterres traveled to New Zealand on Sunday, from where he is set to visit several Pacific islands where rising sea levels are threatening the very existence of those small countries.
Monday, May 13th 2019 - 09:07 UTC
Tories fifth ahead of EU elections; Farage Brexit party leads with 34%; PM May expected to announce departure

British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives have slumped to fifth place in an opinion poll ahead of the May 23 European parliamentary election as pressure grows for her to set a date for her departure.
Monday, May 13th 2019 - 09:06 UTC
Forty US states filed a lawsuit against pharmaceutical firms colluding oligopoly

More than 40 US states have filed a lawsuit accusing pharmaceutical firms of conspiring to artificially inflate the cost of common medicinal drugs. The lawsuit alleges that as many as 20 companies have been involved in fixing prices for over 100 drugs, including treatments for diabetes and cancer.
Saturday, May 11th 2019 - 23:50 UTC
Venezuela denounces US provocation in national waters when Guaidó announces contacts with the Southern Command

The president of the Venezuelan Parliament, Juan Guaidó, asked on Saturday his diplomatic representative in the US, Carlos Vecchio, to meet with the leaders of the Southern Command of that country to coordinate possible military cooperation in the face of the Venezuelan crisis. Meanwhile, the minister of defense of the administration of Nicolás Maduro, Vladimir Padrino López, warned on the same day “a provocation” of a US Coast Guard vessel that sailed 20 kilometers away from La Guaira, the main port of Venezuela.
Saturday, May 11th 2019 - 09:59 UTC
Call for Evidence: UK program to support nature in British Overseas Territories

A ten week Call of Evidence was launched by the UK Government on Friday, to gather knowledge on safeguarding nature in the UK Overseas Territories. Many of the Overseas Territories are globally significant in their ecological richness, containing over 90% of UK’s marine and terrestrial nature. They are hotspots for biodiversity with an estimated 3,300 endemic species, but they are also highly vulnerable to environmental change.
Saturday, May 11th 2019 - 09:58 UTC
Bolsonaro's new guns decree questioned by the Supreme Court and Congress

A Brazilian supreme court judge said Friday that President Jair Bolsonaro and his Justice Ministry had five days to respond to opposition assertions that a recently passed gun decree was unconstitutional.
Saturday, May 11th 2019 - 09:58 UTC
Falkland Islands Wool Company attended the 88th Congress of the International Wool Textiles Organisation

Vikki Berntsen and Farrah Peck of The Falkland Islands Wool Company attended the 88th Congress of the International Wool Textiles Organisation (IWTO) last month, along with Adam Dawes of the Department of Agriculture, and Robert Hall of Falkland Wool Growers.
Saturday, May 11th 2019 - 09:57 UTC
All members of a gun attack outside Congress in Buenos Aires arrested

Two men were arrested on Friday on suspicion of murdering a civil servant and seriously injuring a lawmaker in Argentina, in a brazen crime in broad daylight. Marcelo Yadon was shot five times at close range as he walked in a square in front of the National Congress at 7 am on Thursday with his childhood friend and lawmaker Hector Olivares, who was in a critical condition and underwent emergency surgery.