International

• Sunday, December 4th 2016 - 11:14 UTC

  Anniversary of the Battle of the Falkland Islands

  

  Falkland Islands elected government has announced the following program for Thursday 8th December 2016 to commemorate the victory of the Naval engagements of 8th December 1914, on which day 6 British sailors lost their lives and a number of others died later from injuries received during the battle. 2,260 German sailors also lost their lives.

• Saturday, December 3rd 2016 - 09:53 UTC

  Two Chinese large-scale jiggers heading for the SW Atlantic, announces Pingtan

  

  China's Pingtan Marine has announced the launch of two new squid jiggers, bound for the southwest Atlantic and southeast Pacific oceans. The two newly-completed vessels should reach fishing grounds by late December, and sales of squid catches are then expected to begin in the first quarter of 2017.

• Saturday, December 3rd 2016 - 09:41 UTC

  Old-fashioned cigarette doomed, says world's largest tobacco company

  

  A historic lawsuit loss to Uruguay over tobacco-related cancer damages and other technological developments have Philip Morris focusing on new alternatives. “I think the time will come when we will have enough acceptance of these alternative products to begin to propose, along with the governments, a gradual elimination of conventional cigars,” the company CEO Andre Calantzopoulos announced.

• Saturday, December 3rd 2016 - 08:03 UTC

  Beppe Grillo, Italy's Donald Trump: “I say NO”

  

  By Gwynne Dyer - “Today saying No is the most beautiful and glorious form of politics....Whoever doesn't understand that can go screw themselves.” It could have been Donald Trump before the US election two weeks ago, or Boris Johnson during the Brext campaign in Britain last June, but it was actually Beppe Grillo, founder and leader of Italy's populist Five Star Movement.

• Saturday, December 3rd 2016 - 07:44 UTC

  Brexit controversy ousts Tories from safe seat: Lib Dem newcomer Sarah Olney wins by election

  

  Lib Dem leader Tim Farron claims his party is “back in the big time” after it fought on the issue of Brexit to oust ex-Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith in the Richmond Park by-election. Lib Dem challenger Sarah Olney overturned Goldsmith's 23,015 majority to finish 1,872 votes ahead.

• Saturday, December 3rd 2016 - 07:25 UTC

  Austria's Sunday presidential election with an eye on Brexit and Trump's victory

  

  Austrian voters could elect the European Union’s first far-right leader in the a presidential election on Sunday. Norbert Hofer of the far-right Freedom Party is running against Alexander Van der Bellen. Van der Bellen is an independent candidate who led The Greens party earlier. Recent public opinion studies have shown the two candidates with about equal support.

• Friday, December 2nd 2016 - 09:33 UTC

  Hollande will not run for re-election; conservative Fillon calls it a lucid reaction “to failure”

  

  French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday he would not seek a second term in next year's presidential election, a surprise move that clears the way for an alternative left-wing candidate, most probably his prime minister Manuel Valls.

• Friday, December 2nd 2016 - 09:09 UTC

  New Zealand sends patrol vessel to help combat illegal fishing in Ross Sea

  

  Patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington departs on Sunday for the Southern Ocean from Dunedin to monitor the annual fishing season in the Ross Sea region in an attempt to stamp out illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the area.

• Friday, December 2nd 2016 - 08:43 UTC

  Italy's referendum could knock out Rienzi and unleash a financial volcano

  

  The focus of the news from Italy this weekend will be political: there's a referendum on constitutional reform and the Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, has said he will resign if the proposals are rejected. This could be followed by new elections which could in turn benefit the Five Star Movement, an anti-Euro group led by the former comedian Beppe Grillo.

• Friday, December 2nd 2016 - 08:31 UTC

  Prince Cruise Lines fined US$ 40 million for dumping waste off England

  

  A US cruise liner is to pay a record fine of US$40m for dumping oil-contaminated waste, the US Department of Justice has said. The investigation into Princess Cruise Lines followed a tip-off that the company had illegally discharged oily waste off the coast of England in 2013.