Politics

• Friday, April 17th 2015 - 03:08 UTC

  Sir Simon steps down after five years as FCO Permanent Under-Secretary

  

  The Permanent Under-Secretary (PUS) at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Sir Simon Fraser, will step down after five years in the role and leave HM Diplomatic Service at the end of July 2015. He was appointed PUS, taking over from Sir Peter Ricketts, in August 2010.

• Thursday, April 16th 2015 - 08:57 UTC

  British team recovers U$S50m trove of silver coins from sunken ship south of St Helena

  

  A British-led team has recovered a $50m trove of silver coins that has lain on the seabed since the steamship carrying them from Bombay to England was sunk in 1942. The SS City of Cairo was torpedoed 772km south of St Helena by a German U-boat and sank to 5,150m. The 100 tons of coins, recovered in the deepest salvage operation in history, belonged to HM Treasury.

• Thursday, April 16th 2015 - 08:45 UTC

  EU parliament Armenia resolution “mutilates history and law” blasts Turkey

  

  Turkey’s Foreign Ministry slammed the European Parliament’s decision to adopt a resolution that urges all EU member states and Turkey to recognize the 1915 events as ‘genocide’ and accused the resolution of mutilating history and law, Daily Sabah reports.

• Thursday, April 16th 2015 - 08:43 UTC

  Santos orders resumption of bombing raids after FARC attack kills 10 soldiers

  

  Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos has ordered the resumption of bombing raids against FARC rebels after an attack he blamed on the group killed 10 soldiers, a move that will intensify combat after efforts to cool tensions.

• Thursday, April 16th 2015 - 08:34 UTC

  British embassy in Montevideo awards scholarships to young football players

  

  A football player doesn’t only depend on their sporting attributes on the pitch, but also needs to have the skills to be competitive out of the stadium. For those who start playing football, English can be the key to access to new opportunities, or to put it another way, it can be like a Goal to the Future.

• Thursday, April 16th 2015 - 08:12 UTC

  Brazil questions Argentina's approach to China in military procurement

  

  Brazil's minister of defense Jacques Wagner questioned Argentina's approach to China regarding military procurement, but discarded any conflict with Buenos Aires, since the country is a 'strategic and important partner' of Brazil. Apparently the issue was brought up by Jacques when he visited his counterpart Agustín Rossi in Buenos Aires last week.

• Thursday, April 16th 2015 - 08:07 UTC

  Petrobras corruption probe encroaching President Rousseff; party's treasurer arrested

  

  A widening investigation into alleged corruption at Brazil’s state-controlled oil giant Petrobras took a step closer to President Dilma Rousseff on Wednesday when police arrested the ruling party’s treasurer, João Vaccari Neto, who has been charged with receiving “irregular donations” for the Workers’ Party, or PT, from some of the oil company’s suppliers.

• Thursday, April 16th 2015 - 02:22 UTC

  Falklands people's “democratic rights” will be upheld, pledges Tories' manifesto

  

  With less than a month to UK's election the Conservative party released its manifesto which explicitly declares that a Tory government “will uphold the democratic rights of the people of Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands to remain British, for as long as that is their wish, and protect our Overseas Territories”.

• Wednesday, April 15th 2015 - 08:57 UTC

  St. Helena prepares for airport opening with boutique hotel and South African airline

  

  Two South African companies, Mantis in the hotel business and Comair airline, will be playing a vital role in developing St Helena's economy through increased communications and the tourist industry, once the international airport is opened next February, according to the latest news from the British Overseas Territory in mid South Atlantic.

• Wednesday, April 15th 2015 - 08:43 UTC

  Maximo Kirchner 'ripe' to run for an elected post, says Argentine cabinet chief

  

  Argentina's cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez said on Tuesday he was convinced that Maximo Kirchner, the son of president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, would run for an elected post representing the province of Buenos Aires in the coming general elections of next October.