Politics

• Friday, February 22nd 2019 - 09:05 UTC

  Falklands startled at Westminster paper proposing UK citizens right to vote in Overseas Territories

  

  “Belongership” and its equivalents are wrong,” it is emphatically stated in a startling paper from the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. The paper says the belongership status (known as Falklands Status in the Falklands) as enshrined in the constitutions of a number of British Overseas Territories, including the Falklands, denies legally-resident British Overseas Territory and UK citizens the right to vote and to hold elected office.

• Friday, February 22nd 2019 - 09:03 UTC

  “No deal Brexit” deepens gap in Westminster; PM May warned “dozens” of loyal Tory MPs could rebel

  

  Dozens of normally loyal Conservative MPs could rebel against the government in a bid to prevent a “no-deal” Brexit, Downing Street has been warned. Leaders of the Brexit Delivery Group of both Leavers and Remainers say MPs may back alternatives if Mrs Theresa May's reworked deal cannot command a Commons majority.

• Friday, February 22nd 2019 - 08:38 UTC

  Pinochet's top lady spy and alleged torturer arrested in Australia

  

  Australian police have arrested a Chilean woman living in Sydney over her alleged involvement in a kidnapping during the military rule of Gen Augusto Pinochet in the South American country. Adriana Rivas worked as a secretary for the infamous chief of Chile's secret police force, Manuel Contreras.

• Friday, February 22nd 2019 - 08:31 UTC

  Equal marriage controversy reaches BOTs: 5 out of 14 reluctant to approve the initiative

  

  A report from the UK Parliament’s foreign affairs committee has called on the government to extend equal marriage to the British Overseas Territories. Although equal marriage was legalized in England and Wales in 2013, and Scotland in 2014, the laws did not automatically extend to the British Overseas Territories, which include Bermuda, the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar.

• Thursday, February 21st 2019 - 15:33 UTC

  Labour and Tories face more resignations with Independent Group growing

  

  British Labour and Conservatives parties could face more resignations, with members of the new Independent Group saying they expect more MPs to join them. Ex-Tory MP Heidi Allen told ITV's Peston program “a third” of Tory MPs were fed up with the party's direction.

• Thursday, February 21st 2019 - 09:31 UTC

  Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy demand to meet Pope Francis

  

  Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy demanded on Wednesday to meet Pope Francis to press their call for the Church to apply a zero-tolerance policy including the dismissal of bishops who covered up such offences.

• Thursday, February 21st 2019 - 09:23 UTC

  Macri in Vietnam pledges closer relationship between the two countries

  

  Vietnam sees Argentina as its most important partner in Latin America and hopes to consolidate and strengthen its comprehensive partnership with the country, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc said on Wednesday.

• Thursday, February 21st 2019 - 09:20 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez corruption trial set to begin next week postponed until May

  

  The corruption trial of former Argentina president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, CFK, set to begin next week, has been postponed until May, authorities said on Monday. It is one of several corruption trials facing the opposition Peronist politician, who turned 66 on Tuesday.

• Thursday, February 21st 2019 - 09:18 UTC

  Swiss bank UBS fined €3.7bn in France for helping clients launder proceeds of tax fraud

  

  Swiss banking giant UBS has been fined €3.7bn (US$4.2bn) in a French tax fraud case. A court in Paris found that the bank had illegally helped French clients hide billions of Euros from French tax authorities between 2004 and 2012.

• Thursday, February 21st 2019 - 09:09 UTC

  Maduro's regime closes air and sea traffic from Caribbean islands to block humanitarian aid

  

  Venezuela’s government said on Wednesday that it was closing its border to air and sea traffic from three Caribbean islands in an effort to block aid shipments to the country organized by the Venezuelan opposition.