
National Geographic Traveller (UK) has confirmed the finalists of its fourth Photography Competition 2015 which in the Animal category includes an image of penguins at Bleaker Island in the Falklands.

Media freedom suffered a drastic decline worldwide last year in part because of extremist groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram, the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said in its annual evaluation released Thursday.

Argentina's Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said that the death of AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman is being “used to attack the government” in an interview with the Washington Post. Meanwhile Argentina's Ambassador to the US Cecilia Nahon wrote a letter to the Post’s editor stating that “Argentina seeks only justice in 1994 bombing case.”

Argentina's top officials will meet on Thursday with representatives from the Argentine Industrial Union, UIA, to discuss some clauses and aspects of the recent agreements signed between China and Argentina last week, and which have been questioned by the manufacturers' lobby.

Britain's HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) department has requested Argentina’s AFIP tax bureau information on the criminal report filed in Buenos Aires against HSBC on allegations the bank helped more than 4,000 clients to evade taxes by stashing their money in secret Swiss bank accounts.

The former captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in the 2012 shipwreck, which killed 32 people off the Tuscan holiday island of Giglio. Francesco Schettino was commanding the vessel, a floating hotel as long as three football pitches, when it hit rocks off the island, tearing a hole in its side.

Oil companies have eyed the Arctic for years. With an estimated 90 billion barrels of oil lying north of the Arctic Circle, the circumpolar north is arguably the last corner of the globe that is still almost entirely unexplored.

Statoil’s board of directors has appointed Eldar Sætre as the company’s new president and CEO. Sætre, who has 35 years’ experience from Norway's' Statoil and the oil and gas industry, has been acting as president and CEO since October, and assumes the role with immediate effect.

Pay-TV group Sky has agreed to pay 4.2 billion pounds (6.4 billion dollars) to show 126 live English Premier League matches a season from 2016 to 2019, pressured by fierce rival BT to smash analysts' forecasts and secure the best games.

Following the publication of an article in the British press under the heading of “Democracy in Argentina dented by mysterious murder”, Argentine ambassador in London Alicia Castro, sent a letter to the editor of the Financial Times basically arguing that “our democracy is young, but not fragile” and describing the article as “most groundless and offensive” accusation.