
The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has again failed to agree to protect key areas in the Ross Sea and East Antarctica at its annual meeting in Hobart due to blocking by China and Russia. The partners of the Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA) said that this failure to reach consensus for the fourth time calls into question CCAMLR’s ability to deliver on its conservation commitments.

The BBC has refused to apologize to Argentina over a Top Gear special filmed in the country. The show's stars and crew had to abandon filming last month amid angry protests over a car number-plate that appeared to refer to the Falkland Islands War.

In a harsh letter, released on Friday, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez urged US President Barack Obama to explain whether ”Nancy Soderberg, the person you have appointed as Chair of the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), which reports directly to the Government of the United States of America, is also the Co-Chair of the American Task Force Argentina (ATFA), an entity specifically created to attack and slander the Argentine Republic and its President.”

The central banks of Argentina and China on Thursday activated a bilateral currency-swap agreement, which meant that the Argentine central bank received an initial tranche of Yuan equivalent to 814 million dollars.

South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries Co Ltd, the world's biggest shipbuilder, slid to a record quarterly loss of 1.8 billion dollars and warned it's heading for its worst-ever year as cost overruns mount up in new business lines it developed to counter a global glut of low-margin ship orders.

Fifty one nations on Wednesday signed what was hailed as a milestone in the fight against tax evasion, an agreement that commits them all to automatic exchange of tax information starting in 2017. The accord capped a two-day meeting of officials from most of the 123 nations that have joined the Global Forum, which evolved from an agreement by Germany and Britain two years ago to crack down on tax evasion and tax fraud.

Sweden has recognized the State of Palestine, the country’s foreign minister has announced, making it the first European Union country to do so. The 130 other nations that already recognize a Palestinian State include Hungary, Slovakia and Poland although these three countries took this step before joining the EU.

One of the UK’s best-known designers, Tom Dixon, presented his most recent collection – entitled ‘Club’ - at an event held this last week at the Interdesign Store in Santiago, marking the launch of the British Month 2014 in Chile.

Venezuela recalled its ambassador to Spain to protest interventionist declarations made by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the Venezuelan News Agency (AVN) said on Tuesday.

A Royal Navy warship has seized cocaine with a wholesale value of £10 million from a yacht in the Caribbean. Just 24 hours after helping in the aftermath of Hurricane Gonzalo in Bermuda, the Type 23 frigate HMS Argyll’s Lynx helicopter spotted the yacht in the Atlantic.