By Graham Bound, London - HAROLD Briley, a BBC World Service journalist who reported from Buenos Aires throughout the 1982 Falklands War, has received a special and rare honour from the government of the Islands.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced Monday his intention to boost the shipbuilding and oil and gas industries with the state-owned Petrobras and the Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES) as vectors for public investments, Xinhua reported from Rio de Janeiro.
The number of casualties from the series of earthquakes hitting Türkiye and Syria early Monday has been updated to 4,300, it was reported. Due to the time the quake occurred (4.17 local time), most people were sleeping in their homes and many were unable to escape. Rescuers are searching for survivors in the rubble.
Guillermo Carmona, secretary of the Malvinas, Antarctica and Southern Atlantic Islands held a round of political talks in Spain in the framework of the bi-national cooperation understandings contemplated in the Buenos Aires Declaration from 2021. The document was signed by Argentine president Alberto Fernandez and his Spanish peer Pedro Sánchez and addressed the Argentina/Spain joint strategic action plan 2021/2023 referred to the Falklands/Malvinas and Gibraltar Questions as well as Antarctic and oceans cooperation.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has updated (February 7) its travel advises to the Falkland Islands and to Chile, with the usual main points of its reports: Summary, Coronavirus, Safety and Security, Terrorism, Local Laws and Customs, Entry requirements, Natural Disasters, Health, Money, Travel Advice and Support.
The Brazilian Ministry of Tourism recently released figures indicating the country received 3.1 million international tourists from January to November 2022, which is more than the 2.9 million tourist arrivals in 2020 and 2021.
Researchers from the University of East Anglia have joined the UK’s new polar ship RRS Sir David Attenborough as it begins its polar science trials in Antarctica. A team of 30 national and international scientists, engineers and technical staff departed the Falkland Islands on January 31 – where for almost two months they will test the ship's science capabilities in deep polar waters.
After two decades, the highly pathogenic (when almost all infected animals show symptoms of the disease) avian flu has become a real threat to Brazilian flocks and production. Nine countries in Central and South America have confirmed 75 outbreaks of the disease in recent months and have already had to sacrifice 1.2 million birds.
As US defense forces are beginning to pick up the debris from the Chinese balloon downed during the weekend by the Air Force on President Joseph Biden's orders, the Asian country admitted a second such aircraft last spotted over Colombia belonged to them. Biden said Monday that the Pentagon was in contact with the Latin American countries through which the Chinese balloon passed. The Colombian Air Force reported that an object with characteristics similar to those of a balloon was detected and monitored until it left the airspace.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso Monday admitted defeat in Sunday's referendum through which he intended to garner enough consensus for the remainder of his term after 18 months in office. Citizens were asked, among other issues, to decide whether national offenders could be extradited abroad to face drug-trafficking charges. Lasso favored the idea, a slim majority did not with 47% of the votes counted.