International

• Tuesday, January 5th 2010 - 12:19 UTC

  Illegal immigrants working for British government sensitive offices

  

  Hundreds of illegal immigrants have been working for the British Government in some of the country's most sensitive offices. Some 349 illegal foreign staff have been given jobs with Whitehall departments, councils and NHS Trusts over the past four years.

• Thursday, December 31st 2009 - 12:18 UTC

  Dear MercoPress subscribers and readers:

  

  MercoPress wishes all subscribers and readers a very prosperous New Year, hoping 2010 will definitively help to lift the world out of global recession.

• Thursday, December 31st 2009 - 07:46 UTC

  When Japan assigned 20 “karate-ladies” to protect Margaret Thatcher

  

  Japan was asked not to greet Britain's first female prime minister with a security escort of 20 “karate ladies”, newly-released British government papers show. Margaret Thatcher visited Tokyo for an economic summit in June 1979 - a month after winning the general election.

• Thursday, December 31st 2009 - 05:46 UTC

  Spain names first director for the Instituto Cervantes in Gibraltar

  

  Francisco Oda-Angel, the former director of the Instituto Transfronterizo will be officially assuming his post as the first director of the Gibraltar branch of the Instituto Cervantes (equivalent of the British Council) as from January 1st 2010, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

• Thursday, December 31st 2009 - 04:47 UTC

  Sub zero temperatures across Britain will welcome the New Year

  

  Revellers are gearing up to give a warm welcome to 2010 even though sub-zero temperatures are expected across Britain. Final preparations are being made for huge fireworks displays to usher in the New Year in London and Glasgow.

• Thursday, December 31st 2009 - 04:35 UTC

  Amsterdam airport to install full-body scanners for flights to US

  

  Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport will begin using full-body scanners within three weeks to scan people travelling to the United States after consultations with US authorities, the Dutch interior minister said on Wednesday.

• Wednesday, December 30th 2009 - 09:59 UTC

  Special New Year with a blue moon in the Americas and partial eclipse in Asia

  

  The blue moon has long been a subject of poetry and one of those phrases that are used without quite understanding the meaning, but its presence is a scientific marker for a rotating earth that runs by its own clock, ignoring man’s calendar.

• Wednesday, December 30th 2009 - 09:52 UTC

  Obama: “a systemic failure” by US intelligence which is “totally unacceptable”

  

  A “systemic failure” by US intelligence allowed the alleged terrorist behind the Christmas Day airliner bomb plot to board the aircraft despite warnings about his extremist views, US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, December 30th 2009 - 09:48 UTC

  Companies listed in the London Stock Exchange raised record £ 82.5 billion

  

  Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) have raised a record £82.5bn from investors in 2009. The LSE said investors had been keen to take up offers of new shares despite continued concerns over the economy.

• Tuesday, December 29th 2009 - 12:13 UTC

  China poised to become world’s second largest economy in 2010

  

  China is expected to become in 2010 the world’s second largest economy displacing Japan according to economic forecasts from Beijing’s Statistics Office and reported in the China Daily.