International

• Tuesday, December 11th 2012 - 06:01 UTC

  Ecuador does not discard asylum for Syrian president Bashsar al Asad

  

  Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa does not discard granting political asylum to Syrian president Bahsar al Asad and confirmed that a diplomatic envoy from that government recently visited Quito, according to an interview with the Brazilian media.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 23:02 UTC

  Jewish community protests for being kept on the dark on Argentina/Iran negotiations

  

  The head of the Argentine-Jewish Community Centre (AMIA), Guillermo Borger, warned the government of President Cristina Fernandez that the organization’s members are concerned by the lack of information regarding ongoing negotiations with Iran over the 1994 terrorist attack on the AMIA headquarters, which killed 85 people.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 19:55 UTC

  Brazil leaning for the US F-18 Super Hornet fighter bomber, says Sao Paulo media

  

  The Brazilian air force, awaiting the outcome of the selection process for purchasing 36 fighter jets, is leaning toward the F-18 Super Hornet of the US, which is competing against the French Dassault Rafale and the Swedish Gripen, Istoe magazine said.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 19:46 UTC

  BOT Turks and Caicos Islands former premier on the run since 2009 arrested in Brazil

  

  The former jet-setting premier of the British Overseas Territory Turks and Caicos Islands has been arrested in Brazil after disappearing a few years ago. Michael Misick was detained last Friday at the Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro, governor spokesman Neil Smith said.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 18:56 UTC

  UK launches campaign for re-election to UN Human Rights Council

  

  Foreign Office Minister Baroness Warsi launched on Monday 10 December, UN Human Rights Day, UK’s campaign for re-election to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) for January 2014-December 2016.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 18:48 UTC

  European Central Bank says it has ‘much to learn’ from Latam robust financial systems

  

  The Vice-president of the European central bank Vitor Constancio said the EU has much to learn from Latin America which has coped with successive economic and financial crises and has managed to create robust financial structures which have made the region’s system even more resistant to outside shocks.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 05:44 UTC

  Norovirus attacks cruise ship on the Rhine: 183 pax quarantined

  

  Many passengers aboard a River Rhine cruise ship have fallen ill. The cruise liner, the MS Bellriva, had been on the river when around 70 people complained of symptoms linked to the highly contagious Norovirus.

• Monday, December 10th 2012 - 02:20 UTC

  MPs warn Falklands’ security compromised if shipbuilding in Portsmouth is closed down

  

  The Sunday edition of The Independent reports that an unlikely coalition of right-wing MPs and union leaders have warned that the security of the Falkland Islands would be compromised by shutting BAE Systems' shipbuilding operations in Portsmouth.

• Sunday, December 9th 2012 - 20:04 UTC

  British scientist sentenced in Argentina after falling into drug smuggling by honey trap

  

  Currently confined to a two bedroom flat in a Buenos Aires city neighbourhood, just a few blocks away from the National Congress building, is Professor Paul Frampton, 69, from Kidderminster, who was recently sentenced in Argentina to four years and eight month imprisonment on drugs smuggling charges.

• Sunday, December 9th 2012 - 14:39 UTC

  Falkland Islands: “Nothing to Fear”

  

  Falkland Islanders preparing to exercise their right to self-determination in a landmark democratic vote next March were pledged overwhelming support by the Falkland Islands Association at its annual general meeting in London on Saturday presided over by its chairman, Mr Alan Huckle, a former Governor of the Islands.