Politics

• Tuesday, February 10th 2015 - 05:40 UTC

  Foreign Secretary Hammond opens first FCO “Diplomatic Academy”

  

  United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond will open the Diplomatic Academy in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Tuesday 10th February. The Academy, the first in the Foreign Office’s history, will be a centre of excellence and has been established to equip Foreign Office staff with the essential skills for diplomacy in the modern world.

• Tuesday, February 10th 2015 - 05:35 UTC

  Falklands pensions' scheme receives top qualification from UK HM Revenue & Customs

  

  The Falklands Islands Pensions Board is pleased to announce that HM Revenue & Customs in the United Kingdom has approved the Falkland Islands Pensions Scheme (FIPS) as a Qualifying Recognized Overseas Pensions Scheme (QROPS).

• Monday, February 9th 2015 - 17:41 UTC

  FARC vows to lay down arms and to reinvent itself as a political party

  

  Colombian FARC guerrillas on Saturday vowed to lay down their weapons and reinvent themselves as a political party, if the Colombian government follows through with the reforms under discussion in peace talks.

• Monday, February 9th 2015 - 12:46 UTC

  Bank of England unanimously leaves interest rates at 0.5% for the 71st month

  

  Bank of England has held interest rates at 0.5% for the 71st month in a row and kept its stimulus programme of quantitative easing (QE) unchanged. Most forecasters now think interest rates will not rise before next year.

• Monday, February 9th 2015 - 12:30 UTC

  FARC invites Colombia's newly-crowned Miss Universe to attend peace talks

  

  Rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, on Saturday invited the newly-crowned Miss Universe to attend peace talks with the Colombian government.

• Monday, February 9th 2015 - 10:12 UTC

  Guyana, US, Peru and Uruguay consent to OAS visits on anti-corruption

  

  The governments of Guyana, the United States, Peru and Uruguay confirmed this week to the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) their consent to receive on site visits as part of the Fifth Round of the Mechanism for Follow-up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC) of the OAS.

• Saturday, February 7th 2015 - 05:44 UTC

  “Democracy in Argentina dented by mysterious murder”, says FT

  

  By John Paul Rathbone (*) - The Financial Times Latin American editor, economist and knowledgeable of Argentina has written a column on the current situation in Argentina and the mystery surrounding the death of special prosecutor Alberto Nisman

• Friday, February 6th 2015 - 23:36 UTC

  Anti-austerity Podemos party becomes Spain's second party and political option

  

  Spain’s anti-austerity left-wingers Podemos would come in second, ahead of the Socialist party (PSOE), if general elections were held today, a polling firm declared this week, as the party, barely one year old, continues its surge in popularity.

• Friday, February 6th 2015 - 23:27 UTC

  Market reacts negatively to Petrobras new CEO: too political and too close to Rousseff

  

  Shares in Brazil's oil giant Petrobras plunged Friday as banking executive Aldemir Bendine, who is seen as too close to President Dilma Rousseff's party, was named the scandal-hit firm's new chief executive.

• Friday, February 6th 2015 - 21:57 UTC

  Argentine prosecutors confirm 'silence march' marking a month since Nisman's death

  

  Argentine prosecutors and the judicial employees union have officially called for a demonstration on February 18 marking a month since the death of Alberto Nisman who was in charge of investigating the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center that killed 85 people back in 1994.