The Schmallenberg virus reached the UK this summer and could spread throughout the country, scientists say. Staff from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) and Institute for Animal Health (IAH) found the virus in animals on the RVC farm in Hertfordshire in June.
The July edition of the South Georgia Newsletter recalls a major British military and political event in the South Atlantic has been largely overlooked by the region’s history books. A Royal Navy task force, codenamed Operation Journeyman, was deployed to the waters around South Georgia and the Falklands in 1977 following the occupation of Southern Thule in the South Sandwich Islands by 50 Argentine “scientists”.
The United Nations’ food agency cut its 2012 global rice production forecast but said supply would still outstrip demand and that there was no increased risk of a food crisis as long as countries do not resort to export bans.
Spain’s new Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Federico Trillo-Figueroa, has claimed that his Foreign Minister, Jose Garcia Margallo, has managed to revive bilateral dialogue with UK over Gibraltar within the Brussels context.
France will hire professional fishermen to kill some 20 sharks off the Indian Ocean island of Reunion this week in an effort to understand the reasons for a series of attacks in the surfing hotspot.
Food inflation in Latin America and the Caribbean reached 8.9% in June compared to the same month in 2011, which means the highest so far this year, according to a report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO.
Monsanto, the world's largest seed company won a one billion dollars victory over its arch rival in a lawsuit concerning patents in the agricultural seed market. The victory, concerning genetically modified seeds that allow crops to tolerate weed killer, should have little immediate impact in that lucrative marketplace.
Standard Chartered bank illegally schemed with Iran to launder as much as 250bn dollars for nearly a decade, a US regulator says. The New York State Department of Financial Services said that the bank hid 60.000 secret transactions for Iranian financial institutions that were subject to US economic sanctions.
China's central bank said on Sunday it will strengthen the fine-tuning of its monetary policy in the second half of this year, indicating as many analysts believe that more liquidity may be injected into the world's second largest economy.
London AIM listed Falkland Oil and Gas announced it has reached an agreement to farm out a 35% stake in most of its Falkland Islands’ exploration licenses to the US Noble Energy to help fund its drilling plans off the Islands.