International

• Tuesday, October 16th 2018 - 06:52 UTC

  Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft has died aged 65

  

  Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft, has died aged 65 from complications of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He had revealed the disease's return only two weeks ago, after previously being treated for it in 2009. Allen had said he and his doctors were “optimistic” about treatment.

• Monday, October 15th 2018 - 14:34 UTC

  Key Naseed-Jaber, Quneitra crossings reopened as Syria reaches out to neighbours

  

  The strategic Naseeb crossing between Syria and Jordan on the Damascus-Amman international highway was reopened Monday, just one day after both countries agreed to it. The crossing had been closed since 2015 when the rebels took over that area in Syria's southern province of Daraa. Also Monday the only crossing point near the Syrian border town of Quneitra between Syria and the Golan Heights, under Israeli occupation since 1967, was reopened for United Nations observers, four years after closing due to the civil war, following a deal between Israel, Syria and the UN.

• Monday, October 15th 2018 - 08:15 UTC

  FAO food price index down in September because of growing inventories

  

  Global agricultural food commodity prices fell in September due to growing inventories of key staples. The FAO Food Price Index declined 1.4% from August and is now 7.4% below its level during September 2017.

• Monday, October 15th 2018 - 08:04 UTC

  UK economic low growth anticipated for next three years, with or without a Brexit no deal

  

  United Kingdom can expect low economic growth for the next three years, while a no-deal Brexit could dent growth even further, says a forecasting body. The EY Item Club predicted GDP growth of 1.3% this year and 1.5% in 2019, down from 1.4% and 1.6% respectively in its previous outlook three months ago.

• Monday, October 15th 2018 - 08:00 UTC

  The £50 note will survive in a plastic redesign, announced the Bank of England

  

  The £50 note will not be scrapped and will instead get a plastic redesign, the Bank of England has said. Fears that the largest denomination was widely used by criminals and rarely for ordinary purchases had prompted a proposal to abolish it. But ministers said the new version, to be printed in the UK, would be more durable, secure and harder to forge.

• Monday, October 15th 2018 - 07:38 UTC

  Countdown for Mrs. May: EU Brexit talks on Sunday faltered on Irish “backstop”

  

  The UK can still make progress in Brexit talks despite serious unresolved issues, Downing Street has said. Talks between Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and EU negotiator Michel Barnier faltered on Sunday over the so-called Irish “backstop”, which could see the UK remaining in the customs union. However Number 10 said the government was still “committed to making progress”.

• Monday, October 15th 2018 - 07:17 UTC

  Bavaria's CSU loses its majority in regional election; blow for Merkel's coalition

  

  Angela Merkel's sister party has suffered massive losses in Bavaria's state elections, exit polls suggest, in a blow to the German chancellor. The CSU is set to lose its absolute majority in the state parliament, while the Greens surged into second place and the anti-immigration AfD entered the state parliament for the first time.

• Monday, October 15th 2018 - 04:42 UTC

  Two Chilean bishops no longer priests due to their involvement in cases of sexual abuse

  

  Pope Francis Saturday stripped two Chilean bishops of their priesthood after having been found to be involved in the country's widening sexual abuse crisis, the Vatican said on Saturday. A Vatican statement in Spanish said the pope's decision was definitive and not open to appeal.

• Monday, October 15th 2018 - 04:14 UTC

  The Catholic Church has seven new saints

  

  A former pontiff, a Spanish-born nun who is said to have performed her first miracle in Argentina and a slain Salvadorean Bishop were among the seven new saints canonised Sunday by Pope Francis at the Vatican.

• Sunday, October 14th 2018 - 23:34 UTC

  Nigeria: Abducted ICRC health care workers' execution imminent

  

  The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Sunday made a public appeal to the Nigerian Government in a last attempt to save the lives of Hauwa and Alice, two health care workers abducted in March by ISWAP (Islamic State's West African province group).