International

• Saturday, September 30th 2017 - 13:27 UTC

  Theresa May strongly defends free market capitalism during Band of England event

  

  Britain's Theresa May has defended free market capitalism in a speech marking 20 years since the Bank of England was given the right to set interest rates. She said Britons should never forget the value of a free market economy.

• Friday, September 29th 2017 - 07:50 UTC

  Catalonia dispute: Madrid sends 6.000 extra police; Barcelona appeals to Europe to mediate

  

  Barcelona police have sealed off a warehouse said to be stocking ballot boxes, as Spain seeks to obstruct a Catalan independence referendum. The Guàrdia Urbana force was obeying an order from prosecutors to prevent the Catalan vote being held on Sunday. About 16,000 school and university students marched through Barcelona demanding that the vote go ahead.

• Friday, September 29th 2017 - 07:07 UTC

  Falklands' delegation heads for the Conservative party conference in Manchester

  

  With the Labour party conference in Brighton behind, the Falkland Islands delegation will be moving on Saturday to Manchester for the Conservative party conference, which begins October first.

• Thursday, September 28th 2017 - 23:51 UTC

  Twitter doubles character limit to 280, except for Chinese, Japanese and Korean

  

  Twitter on Tuesday announced that it is doubling its character limit to 280 for all languages except Japanese, Chinese and Korean. At its inception, a tweet, modeled after an SMS message, was restricted to 140 characters. Over the years, Twitter found ways to sneak in a few more characters, first by excluding any form of media and later the @reply from the character count.

• Thursday, September 28th 2017 - 23:43 UTC

  Saudi Arabia women hail decision allowing them to drive: great victory

  

  Campaigners in Saudi Arabia have hailed King Salman's decree allowing women to drive for the first time. One female activist called it a “great victory”, while another said things would “never be the same again”, and the country's US ambassador has described the move as “the right decision at the right time”.

• Thursday, September 28th 2017 - 21:58 UTC

  UK supports Bombardier and warns Boeing dispute could jeopardize defense contracts

  

  Boeing's trade dispute with Bombardier “could jeopardize” its defense contracts with the UK government, the UK's defense secretary has warned. Sir Michael Fallon made the comments after the US opted to impose a tax on the C-Series jet made by Bombardier.

• Thursday, September 28th 2017 - 07:48 UTC

  British Embassy present at the main Uruguayan agri-business exhibition for the fourth consecutive year.

  

  From 6-17 September, Montevideo was home to Uruguay’s biggest agricultural industrial fair, Expo-Prado, and the British Embassy was present with a pavilion focused on tourism, business, education, gastronomy and culture.

• Thursday, September 28th 2017 - 07:30 UTC

  “Labour on the threshold of power”, and “Tories hanging on their fingertips”, Corbyn tells the conference

  

  Jeremy Corbyn was given a rapturous reception from Labour delegates in Brighton as he told them that the party was now the “government-in-waiting”. The Labour leader had to wait several minutes before delivering his keynote speech as the familiar chant of “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” rang round the conference hall.

• Thursday, September 28th 2017 - 07:16 UTC

  OAS hosts seminar on “Connectivity and Freedom of Expression in the Americas”

  

  Experts, academics and authorities on connectivity and freedom of expression in the Americas will meet Thursday at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC to discuss and share experiences about optimal regulatory policies to create a universal telecommunication connectivity environment that helps strengthen the exercise of freedom of expression and of the press in the region.

• Thursday, September 28th 2017 - 06:51 UTC

  Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner died at age 91 in Los Angeles

  

  Playboy founder Hugh M. Hefner, the pipe-smoking hedonist who revved up the sexual revolution in the 1950s and built a multimedia empire of clubs, mansions, movies and television, symbolized by bow-tied women in bunny costumes, has died at age 91. He died of natural causes at his home surrounded by family Wednesday night, Playboy said in a statement.