International

• Saturday, October 31st 2015 - 07:14 UTC

  Falklands' visit early next year for Shadow Foreign minister Stephen Doughty

  

  Cardiff South and Penarth MP Stephen Doughty has become the shadow minister responsible for Africa, South Asia and the Falkland Islands, reports Walesonline. The Labour MP takes on the role at a time when the UK is responding to the migrant crisis in North Africa and tensions have heightened between Britain and Argentina over the future of the Falklands, the Islands which he plans to visit early next year.

• Saturday, October 31st 2015 - 06:51 UTC

  Venezuela seeking an additional 12 Sukhoi fighter jets from Russia

  

  Venezuela will allocate $480 million to upgrade its Sukhoi fighter jets from Russia. “President Nicolas Maduro just authorized the payment of $480 million so that the service life of our Sukhoi planes and continue to fulfill their duty and give protection to the Venezuelan airspace,” Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez was quoted, by Moscow's Sputnik news agency on Thursday.

• Saturday, October 31st 2015 - 06:08 UTC

  Frustration with CCAMLR meeting: no advance on conservation proposals

  

  The 34th meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Marine Living Resources closed Friday in Hobart, Tasmania with the unexpected emergence of China as a supporter for a revised Ross Sea MPA. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) described the Commission’s slow progress to live up to its conservation responsibilities as “challenging”.

• Friday, October 30th 2015 - 08:09 UTC

  New Zealand rejects controversial sale of iconic dairy farm to Chinese company

  

  Chinese conglomerate Shanghai Pengxin Group has been on a buying spree ever since it entered New Zealand in 2011. The food giant has bought 29 farms through local subsidiaries to become the country's third largest dairy producer.

• Friday, October 30th 2015 - 08:03 UTC

  WHO clarification: moderate consumption of meat, particularly preserved meat

  

  The World Health Organization, WHO, has received a number of queries, expressions of concern and requests for clarification following the publication of a report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) relating to processed meat and colorectal cancer.

• Friday, October 30th 2015 - 07:48 UTC

  Chinese couples allowed to have a second child; policy was imposed in 1979 to slow population growth

  

  China has decided to end its decades-long one-child policy, the state-run Xinhua news agency reports. Couples will now be allowed to have two children, it said, citing a statement from the Communist Party. The controversial policy was introduced nationally in 1979, to slow the population growth rate.

• Friday, October 30th 2015 - 05:52 UTC

  Uruguayan president helps revive young passenger in a flight to Paris

  

  Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez put his old profession as physician to use helping revive a young French allergic woman on a flight to Paris, according to a report on the Montevideo weekly Busqueda. The incident occurred last Monday.

• Thursday, October 29th 2015 - 14:50 UTC

  Tuberculosis mortality nearly halved since 1990

  

  The fight against tuberculosis is paying off, with this year’s death rate nearly half of what it was in 1990. Nevertheless, 1.5 million people died from TB in 2014. Most of these deaths could have been prevented, according to the World Health Organization’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2015, which was released on Wednesday in Washington, DC.

• Thursday, October 29th 2015 - 06:53 UTC

  On Amazon Day, Minister Swire praises Brazil as champion on climate change and tackling deforestation

  

  Describing Brazil as a valued partner of Britain, and champion on climate change and tackling deforestation, Minister of State for Latin America, Hugo Swire, attended on Wednesday the Amazon Day 2015 at the Brazilian embassy where he also met with ministers Texeira, Levy and Coutinho who are in London for the first UK-Brazil economic and financial dialogue round.

• Thursday, October 29th 2015 - 06:06 UTC

  Noble Energy begins production in Gulf of Mexico deepwater oil development

  

  Noble Energy with interests in Falklands' exploration, has commenced production from the Big Bend oil development in Mississippi Canyon 698 of the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Noble and partners expect the single-well field to reach a maximum gross production rate of approximately 20,000 boe/d over the next couple of weeks. Approximately 90% of the volumes being produced from Big Bend are oil, Noble said.