International

• Thursday, January 18th 2018 - 09:11 UTC

  All cuts of Argentine beef and lamb have full access to the Chinese market

  

  Argentina and China signed a “historic” agreement that opens the huge Asian market to beef and lamb with bone from the South American country, according to Senasa the Argentine agriculture and livestock sanitary office. The deal concludes fifteen years of negotiations and means access to the world's largest importer of beef.

• Thursday, January 18th 2018 - 08:20 UTC

  A second attempt to erect a statue of Margaret Thatcher outside Parliament looks set to fail

  

  A second attempt to erect a statue of Britain's former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher outside parliament, just six months after a first proposal was thrown out over vandalism fears, looks set to fail after officials recommended it be rejected.

• Thursday, January 18th 2018 - 07:14 UTC

  Brexit bill passes House of Commons and now faces Lords' tough debate

  

  The marathon bill paving the way for Britain to leave the European Union passed a crucial stage in the House of Commons on Wednesday night. With support of 324 MPs, and the opposition of 295 MPs, a government majority of just 29, the bill for Exiting the EU aims to convert all European law into British law.

• Wednesday, January 17th 2018 - 22:37 UTC

  Falklands' lawmaker in Guyana to discuss self determination and border controversies

  

  Falkland Islands lawmaker MLA Ian Hansen made on Wednesday a courtesy call on Guyana's Minister of State Joseph Harmon at his office in the Ministry of Presidency, in Georgetown, the country's capital.

• Wednesday, January 17th 2018 - 10:14 UTC

  Conservatives urge “unity of purpose” ahead of EU Withdrawal Bill third reading

  

  The Conservatives have urged MPs to show a “unity of purpose” and back their Brexit legislation in a key vote. The EU (Withdrawal) Bill gets its third reading in the House of Commons later before heading to the Lords.

• Wednesday, January 17th 2018 - 10:12 UTC

  Wales will take steps to protect its interests, unless changes are made to EU Withdrawal bill

  

  First Minister Carwyn Jones has said he will take steps to protect Welsh powers after Brexit if UK ministers do not change their EU withdrawal bill. He claimed the way Theresa May planned to bring powers back from Brussels was a “fundamental assault” on devolution.

• Wednesday, January 17th 2018 - 09:25 UTC

  Europe tells UK that “our hearts are still open”, and hopes London will listen

  

  Europe’s top two bureaucrats believe the UK could still yet change its mind on Brexit. Donald Tusk, the European Council president, said “our hearts are still open” to “our British friends” to remain in the bloc. And quoting the UK Brexit secretary, he added: “Wasn’t it David Davis himself who said ‘if a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy’? We here on the continent haven’t had a change of heart – our hearts are still open to you.”

• Wednesday, January 17th 2018 - 09:23 UTC

  Minus 67 Celsisus in Russia'a Yakuta region, 5.300 kilometers east of Moscow

  

  Even thermometers can't keep up with the plunging temperatures in Russia's remote Yakutia region, which hit minus 67 degrees Celsius (minus 88.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas on Tuesday. In Yakutia, a region of 1 million people about 5,300 kilometers east of Moscow, students routinely go to school even in minus 40 degrees. But school was canceled on Tuesday throughout the region and police ordered parents to keep their children inside.

• Wednesday, January 17th 2018 - 09:12 UTC

  European Parliament bans electric pulse fishing; rejection from Dutch fishermen

  

  The European Parliament called on Tuesday for a ban on electric pulse fishing in the European Union, defying Brussels which wants the experimental practice in the North Sea done on a larger scale. The parliament, the EU's only directly elected body, will now try to strike a compromise with the European Commission, the bloc's executive, and the European Council, which groups the 28 member states.

• Wednesday, January 17th 2018 - 07:13 UTC

  Francis expresses pain and shame for sex abuse by Chile's Catholic clergy

  

  On his first full day in Chile on Tuesday Pope Francis immediately confronted the issue of sex abuse by the country's Catholic clergy, apologized and said he felt ashamed -- just hours after several Chilean churches were reportedly firebombed.