THE FEROCITY with which many Gibraltarians will denounce the deal expected to be announced today between Britain and Spain to share sovereignty over the Rock may be a moment of catharsis. It reflects the understandable feeling of betrayal shared by many other communities left behind by the receding of the red ink from the map of the world. The force of the Gibraltarians' insistence on their Britishness carries echoes of the excessive loyalty to symbols of Britishness demonstrated by the unionists in Northern Ireland.
Hundreds of jiggers along with about a dozen large factory vessels are once again operating near the country's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in Argentina from where they move into territorial waters to illegally catch squid (Illex argentinus).
The British Government official who headed the Ministry of Defence during the Falklands War, Sir Frank Cooper, GCB, CMG, has died, aged 79.
FCO Minister of State, Peter Hain, gave a speech on Gibraltar in an adjournment debate in Westminster Hall today.
The Royal Air Force has introduced a novel way of flying its front-line Tornado fighters to the Falkland Islands. They go as passengers inside the giant C17 Globemaster transport aircraft on lease from the United States.
A former Argentine naval officer, Captain Alfredo Astiz, arrested in December at Sweden's request in connection with the killing of a 17-year-old Swedish student, Dagmar Hagelin in Buenos Aires in 1977, has been released by the Argentine authorities.