International

• Saturday, December 10th 2016 - 10:37 UTC

  Obama orders review of election-campaign cyber-attacks and points to Russia

  

  President Barack Obama has ordered intelligence officials to conduct a broad review of election-season cyber-attacks, including the email hacks that rattled the presidential campaign and raised fresh concerns about Russia’s meddling in U.S. elections, the White House said Friday.

• Saturday, December 10th 2016 - 09:52 UTC

  House of Lords EU committee to launch inquiry into Brexit implications for Gibraltar

  

  The United Kingdom House of Lords EU Select Committee has launched a new short inquiry on the implications of Brexit for Gibraltar. The committee will meet next week and take evidence from Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo, Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia and Attorney General Michael Llamas.

• Friday, December 9th 2016 - 17:04 UTC

  ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ too gender-biased for London's public transport

  

  London Mayor Sadiq Khan looks to scrap the traditional “Ladies and Gentlemen” announcement on trains and buses and replace it with a gender neutral phrasing following complaints from a transgender woman who was mocked as she ‘didn't sound like a Miss’.

• Friday, December 9th 2016 - 15:25 UTC

  UK faces threat of “unprecedented” proportions, says British chief spy

  

  MI6 Director Alex Younger said on Thursday that the unprecedented terrorist threat his country is going through would not abate until the end of the civil war in Syria. Ha added that 12 plots to commit an attack have been dismantled since June 2013 and warned that “the efficiently murderous” Islamic state continues to plan attacks from Syria, despite recent military setbacks.

• Friday, December 9th 2016 - 09:47 UTC

  UK and Brazil underline significance of bilateral cooperation and initiatives in strategic areas

  

  British Secretary of State for International Trade, Dr Liam Fox, and the Brazilian Minister for Industry, Foreign Trade and Services, Marcos Pereira, emphasized the importance of current bilateral cooperation and agreed initiatives on strategic areas to support mutual economic development, during the 9th UK-Brazil Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) meeting held in Brasília this week.

• Friday, December 9th 2016 - 09:27 UTC

  UK celebrates 25th anniversary of Antarctic Environmental protection treaty

  

  On the twenty fifth anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty Protocol on Environmental Protection, British Minister for Polar Regions, Sir Alan Duncan underlined the hsitoric contribution and role played by the UK in Antarctica and in elaborating the protocol. Sir Duncan also pointed out that Antarctica has been the scene of considerable cooperation between the UK and Argentina, both within the Treaty system and in the field of science, “an area where I hope we may be able to do even more in the coming years”.

• Thursday, December 8th 2016 - 19:01 UTC

  Russia sells 19.5% of Rosneft - ‘biggest privatization deal of 2016,’ says Putin

  

  Russian President Vladimir Putin labeled the sale of 19.5% of state-owned oil giant Rosneft's shares to the natural resource trader Glencore International and a Qatari sovereign wealth fund for over $11 billion was “the biggest sale and acquisition in the world’s oil and gas sector in 2016,” the official Kremlin website reported Wednesday.

• Thursday, December 8th 2016 - 17:18 UTC

  Falklands War carrier HMS Illustrious headed for scrapping in Turkey

  

  Replacements are years away and still Britain’s last aircraft carrier, ‘HMS Illustrious,’ has set sail to be scrapped in Turkey. The vessel, known as 'Lusty,' came into service in 1982 and was rushed into service to catch the lattermost stages of the Falklands War. She also served in the Gulf Wars and Sierra Leone conflict. It was one of three Invincible-class ships commissioned in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

• Thursday, December 8th 2016 - 10:15 UTC

  Time magazine names Trump “Person of the Year”, president of the divided States of America

  

  Time magazine on Wednesday named Donald Trump its Person of the Year, bestowing what the president-elect called an “honor” even as he derided the idea that he’ll lead “the Divided States of America.”

• Thursday, December 8th 2016 - 08:40 UTC

  Identification of soldiers buried in Falklands: talks on protocol procedure being in Geneva

  

  The governments of Argentina and the Falkland Islands reported almost simultaneously this week that respective delegates had left for Geneva, Switzerland to hold talks on Thursday and Friday with the International Red Cross (CICR) on the process to follow for the identification of 'unknown' Argentine combatants buried at the Darwin cemetery in the Falklands.