Politics

• Wednesday, December 26th 2018 - 09:03 UTC

  Busy Christmas: UK rescues illegal immigrants in the English Channel

  

  Forty migrants, including two children, have been rescued from boats in five separate incidents on Christmas Day in the English Channel. Lifeboats and a coastguard helicopter intercepted a boat carrying 12 people and a child off the coast of Deal, Kent, at about 04:30 GMT. And a girl was one of eight who arrived in Folkestone at about 02:40 GMT.

• Wednesday, December 26th 2018 - 08:53 UTC

  Bolsonaro after Israel technology to water the parched northeast

  

  Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday said he wants an agreement with Israel to build desalination plants in the parched north where droughts are frequent. In a message on Twitter, Bolsonaro, who is to take office on Jan. 1, said his appointed Science and Technology Minister Marcos Pontes will travel to Tel Aviv in January to meet with his Israeli counterpart over the matter.

• Wednesday, December 26th 2018 - 08:52 UTC

  Managua acknowledges 340 political prisoners, NGOs speak of almost twice as many

  

  A total 340 people have been reported Tuesday to be incarcerated in Nicaragua for their involvement in anti-givernment actions, according to the National Prison System, as the administration of President Daniel Ortega has been going through a socio-political crisis since April that has left hundreds dead and thousands either under arrest or injured. Human rights NGOs estimate the number of detainees to be almost twice as many.

• Wednesday, December 26th 2018 - 08:45 UTC

  Japan withdraws from the Whaling Commission to resume commercial hunting

  

  Japan will withdraw from the International Whaling Commission in 2019 to pave the way for the resumption of commercial whaling for the first time in about three decades, the government said on Wednesday, a decision likely to draw international condemnation.

• Wednesday, December 26th 2018 - 07:05 UTC

  Pope calls for peace and fraternity in his Urbi e Orbi address

  

  The Pope has used his annual Christmas message to appeal for peace in conflict zones including Yemen and Syria. The two countries have both been ravaged by civil war for years, pushing their people into humanitarian crises. Francis also called for political reconciliation in Nicaragua and Venezuela.

• Wednesday, December 26th 2018 - 06:59 UTC

  Venezuelan opposition opens Human Rights Museum

  

  Venezuelan human rights activists and opposition party Voluntad Popular (VP) Monday opened an exhibition about the country's political prisoners, their alleged tortures and the plights hundreds of victims of the Nicolás Naduri regime have gone through.

• Wednesday, December 26th 2018 - 06:51 UTC

  Market analyst views Argentina, Brazil on path to recovery in 2019

  

  Argentina, Brazil and India lead the prospects of an economic recovery, according to Michael Hasenstab of Templeton Global Bond Fund Management.

• Tuesday, December 25th 2018 - 22:49 UTC

  Mexican Congress passes AMLO's first budget

  

  The Mexican House of Deputies Monday gave its final green light to the spending law bill - that is one week before the legal deadline - with funds relocated from autonomous bodies to sensitive areas such as agriculture, environment and public universities, it was announced.

• Monday, December 24th 2018 - 14:24 UTC

  Venezuelan Navy repels oil exploring ship, triggers international diplomatic conflict with Guyana

  

  Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has demanded that Guyana respect its sovereignty after two ships of the transnational company ExxonMobil were repelled Saturday from what the Bolivarian Navy deemed to be their country's waters. But both the governments of the United States and of Guyana claim it was Venezuela who was in breach of international law.

• Monday, December 24th 2018 - 09:23 UTC

  “Peace on earth and goodwill to all, needed as much as ever”, Queen's Christmas message

  

  The Queen will say in her Christmas Day broadcast that the Christian message of “peace on earth and goodwill to all” is “needed as much as ever”. She will say the message is “never out of date” and can be “heeded by everyone”.