Australia wants UK in EU

Falkland lawmakers reject Argentine claim

SYDNEY, April 2, (Agencies): The former British colony of Australia wants Britain to stay in the European Union, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said, weeks before Britain holds a referendum on EU membership.

Bishop told reporters in Washington that “a strong UK as part of the European Union would be in Australia’s interests”, according to the Australian Associated Press.

Bishop said that she told British Prime Minister David Cameron of the Australian position at a meeting in Washington on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit, AAP said.

Britain holds a referendum on EU membership on June 23.

Britain’s entry into the Common Market in 1973 was widely considered a betrayal in Australia, upending decades of tradition and a host of tariff agreements.

But now Britain takes only 2.5 percent of Australia’s exports, while China takes more than 31 percent.

Supporters of Britain’s exit from the European Union argue that “family ties” with Commonwealth members such as Australia could compensate for the partial loss of Europe’s 444 million customers.

David Davis, a Conservative MP and die-hard eurosceptic, outlined their ambitions in a recent exhaustive speech.

“This is an opportunity to renew our strong relationships with Commonwealth and Anglosphere countries,” he said.

“These parts of the world are growing faster than Europe. We share history, culture and language. We even share similar legal systems. The usual barriers to trade are largely absent.”

Lawmakers in the far-flung Falkland Islands are rejecting Argentina’s claim that a recent decision by a UN commission strengthens the South American nation’s claim over the archipelago.

Earlier this week, the Argentine government said that the UN commission on the limits of the continental shelf had sided with Argentina in a dispute with Great Britain going back decades. The government said the commission had ratified a 2009 Argentine report that fixed the limit of its territory at 200 to 350 miles from its coast.

On Monday, Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra, previously chief of staff to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, posted a map on Twitter that showed the islands included in Argentina’s continental shelf territory.

Like with everything related to the islands, even what the extension of territory would include is in dispute. The report itself has not been made public.

The UN “has agreed to continental shelf extension for Argentina in those areas north of the Falklands Islands that are not the subject of competing claims,” Mike Summers, one the local legislative assembly members that govern the British Overseas Territory, told The Associated Press during an interview on Thursday.

Summers added the decision “has no effect for the sovereign position of the Falklands.”

In 1982, Argentina invaded and was then routed by British troops. Saturday marks the 34th anniversary of the war. Friday night, Argentine veterans of the war planned to hold a vigil in Buenos Aires.

Islanders and the British government have long rejected Argentina’s claims and refused to negotiate. While the commission’s recommendation is non-binding, it adds more weight to Argentina’s contention.

Private funding to fight modern day slavery rose by nearly 60 percent over a two-year period but remains too little to make any meaningful impact against the global problem, anti-slavery organisations said on Friday.

Between 2012 and 2014, some $233 million of private funds was spent on anti-slavery initiatives - an amount dwarfed by the estimated $150 billion in profits forced labour generates every year, the Freedom Fund and Humanity United said in a report.

It said funding for such initiatives reached a record high of $99 million in 2014, a 57 percent increase in two years.

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LONDON:

A man was handed a twoyear jail sentence Friday after becoming the first in England to be convicted of keeping his wife “in domestic servitude”.

In what the Crown Prosecution Service said was the first case of its kind in England, London’s Woolwich Crown Court heard that Safraz Ahmed, 34, imprisoned and beat his wife after an arranged marriage in Pakistan.

The mechanic from Charlton in southeast London forced his wife, Sumara Iram, to cook, clean and look after his mother from 5am to midnight every day after she moved to Britain in 2012.