
A laboratory technician from the Dallas hospital where a Liberian died of the Ebola virus, and who handled some of his fluid samples for analysis, has been placed in quarantine aboard a cruise ship, the State Department said on Friday.

The people of the non-self governing territories on the United Nations list, like Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, have to be decolonised in accordance with the wishes of those people in exercise of the right of self determination, said Gibraltar Deputy Chief minister Dr. Joseph Garcia during the opening of the academic symposium on “Self-determination, devolution and independence in the 21st century”

The global oil market slump looks likely to continue, with prices possibly nearing 70 dollars a barrel in the short term, an official of Russian gas producer Gazprom said. Crude fell more than on dollar a barrel on Thursday to a four-year low below 83 a barrel as growing concerns over the global economy stretched a four-month rout.

A two day symposium entitled “Self-determination, devolution and independence in the 21st century” was opened on Thursday by Gibraltar's Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia at the Garrison Library in the Rock.

Venezuela celebrated on Thursday as a great diplomatic success and a victory of Hugo Chavez, having been voted by the UN General Assembly to join the Security Council for two years as a non permanent member.

In three rounds of voting on Thursday the United Nations General Assembly elected Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela to serve as non-permanent members on the Security Council for two-year terms beginning on 1 January 2015.

Venezuela will almost certainly default on its foreign debt, according to Harvard economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff. They add that the beleaguered Latin American economy has already defaulted on every conceivable kind of domestic debt.

Running a multi-billion dollar energy company isn't easy. Just ask the executives in the corner suites of some of the energy companies that have gone bust over the years. Some, like Enron, were brought down because of insider malfeasance.

A numerous Argentine delegation will be attending this week trade and investment conferences in New Delhi as part of the country's efforts to increase exports to the growing Indian market and attract investors.

Conservative Roman Catholic prelates have vowed to change a controversial Vatican document that held out the possibility of a major shift in the Church's attitude towards homosexuals.