International

• Thursday, May 21st 2015 - 07:08 UTC

  Five world leading banks fined 5.7bn dollars for manipulating foreign exchange markets

  

  Five of the world's largest banks are to pay fines totaling $5.7bn for charges including manipulating the foreign exchange market. Four of the banks - JPMorgan, Barclays, Citigroup and RBS - have agreed to plead guilty to US criminal charges, while the fifth, UBS from Switzerland will plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates.

• Thursday, May 21st 2015 - 06:56 UTC

  Iranian officers' interviews, allegedly linked to AMIA bombing, attract world media attention

  

  The interviews with former Iranian officials accused of the 1994 AMIA bombing of a Jewish organization in downtown Buenos Aires aired this week by Argentine news channel C5N were covered by a number of international media outlets.

• Thursday, May 21st 2015 - 06:40 UTC

  Pope Francis prays for Argentina on the country's National Day

  

  Pope Francis has sent a letter to President Cristina Fernández to mark festivities for May week, during which Argentina commemorates the formation of the First Patriotic Government on 25 May 1810.

• Wednesday, May 20th 2015 - 22:09 UTC

  Falklands: “We are an Overseas Territory, very content with the status and endorsed in the 2013 referendum”

  

  The Falkland Islands are very pleased with their current political and democratic status based on the UN charter and confirmed in the 2013 referendum, enjoy a prosperous economy with emphasis on social policies and environment conservation and have good neighborly relations with nearby countries, except for Argentina that “continues to ignore our people's right to self-determination and covet our territory”.

• Wednesday, May 20th 2015 - 20:44 UTC

  'Record' seven-foot conger eel trawled off Plymouth in UK

  

  Commercial fishermen trawling off the coast of the United Kingdom near Plymouth were stunned last week when they brought aboard a seven-foot, roughly 130-pound conger eel. The eel had gotten caught up in the trawler’s nets and was already dead by the time it was brought out of the water, but its sheer size surprised even the fishermen on board.

• Wednesday, May 20th 2015 - 20:34 UTC

  Research icebreaker Polarstern en route to investigate climate change in Arctic

  

  Research icebreaker Polarstern left its home port in Bremerhaven on Tuesday setting a course for the Arctic. Led by Dr Ilka Peeken from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) a team of 53 researchers from 11 countries will investigate the effects of climate change in the Arctic, from the surface ice floes down to the seafloor

• Wednesday, May 20th 2015 - 05:44 UTC

  Beijing to the rescue of sliding Brazil: 53bn dollars in trade, finance and investment

  

  Beijing has come to the rescue of Brazil's slumping economy with trade, finance and investment deals worth at least 53 billion dollars in energy, mining, aviation and upgrading of dilapidated infrastructure.

• Wednesday, May 20th 2015 - 05:27 UTC

  Japanese airbag maker Takata admits defects forcing the recall of 34m vehicles

  

  Japanese airbag maker Takata has said that mechanisms in the airbags of almost 34 million cars are defective. It will lead to the largest recall in US automotive history, affecting models from 11 carmakers. . The number is double previous estimates for faulty air bags from the manufacturer.

• Wednesday, May 20th 2015 - 04:31 UTC

  Former Iranian officials deny any involvement in the 1994 AMIA attack in Buenos Aires

  

  Former Iranian foreign minister Alí Akbar Velayati accused Argentina of being under the influence of Zionism and the United States over the investigation into the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires which killed 85 and injured 300 and is considered the worst terrorist attack suffered by the country.

• Tuesday, May 19th 2015 - 09:55 UTC

  Two Palestinian nuns gain sainthood in mass attended by president Abbas

  

  Two 19th-century nuns on Sunday became the first Palestinians to gain sainthood during an open-air mass celebrated by Pope Francis in St Peter's Square attended by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.