Falkland Islands

• Friday, February 25th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  New £30M 'Falklands' Warship

  VT Group plc has been awarded a contract by the Ministry of Defence for the construction of a new 80 metre Offshore Patrol Vessel (Helicopter) for the Royal Navy.

• Friday, February 25th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Hunting for hidden riches: gold and oil exploration gather pace in the Falklands

  HOPES of a new gold rush in the Falklands will come a step closer next week with the start of an exploratory drilling programme near Goose Green.

• Thursday, February 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  “Oil money won't bail us out” say Councillors.

  FALKLANDS Councillors made it clear this week that if offshore oil reserves are discovered, the financial bonanza won't come soon enough to dig their budgets out of the immediate hole left by a reduced illex fishery.

• Thursday, February 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Stanley draws up plans for stranded cruise passengers.

  A CONTINGECY plan is being written up for Stanley so that the town will be better prepared if it ever again finds itself overnight host to hundreds of stranded cruise ship passengers.

• Thursday, February 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Hardman Provide Falklands Licence Area Update.

  Hardman Resources has been advised by the operator Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd that it has completed recording approximately 85% of the planned 4,900 kilometre 2D seismic survey in their 33,000 square kilometre licence areas to the south and east of the Falkland Islands (Hardman (22.5%) is in joint venture with FOGL (77.5%).

• Wednesday, February 23rd 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Landmines Team in the Falklands.

  A four-member team returned Tuesday to the United Kingdom after a week spent discussing with Falkland Islanders their experiences of living alongside landmines.

• Wednesday, February 23rd 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Next of Kin Visit: “No Flags Please, We're British”

  THE families of Argentine war dead will be under strict instructions to fly no national flags during the dedication of the Darwin War Memorial in March.

• Tuesday, February 22nd 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Avian Cholera to blame for South Georgia penguin deaths.

  THE deaths of hundreds of Chinstrap penguins at Cooper Bay, South Georgia late last year have been blamed on Avian Cholera (Pasturella multocida), a bacterium that has previously been identified in the Antarctic and other sub-Antarctic islands.

• Monday, February 21st 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  HMS Gloucester heading for Brazil.

  South Atlantic patrol HMS Gloucester left the Falkland Islands last Friday and is heading north towards Brazil.

• Sunday, February 20th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  The end of an era for ?Falklands Experience'.

  AS REGULAR as the arrival of the Rockhopper penguins, one of the sure signs of summer in the Falklands for the last twenty years has been the sighting in the streets of Stanley of Major Ronnie Spafford, leading yet another small group of eager visitors, usually of mature years, but often wearing, with varying degrees of self-consciousness, sweatshirts of psychedelic hue, emblazoned with the words “Falklands Experience”. “Ronnie makes us wear them, you know,” one lady recently confided.