Stories for December 12th 2008
Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News Update
Headlines: Vice Chief of Defence makes Falklands visit; BA Honours degree for Nancy; Missing drugs: Spanish fisherman pleads guilty to charge of burglary.
Peruvian opinion poll confesses corruption is rampant
An overwhelming majority of Peruvians believe their country is corrupt or very corrupt, according to a national public opinion poll published Friday in the capital Lima press.
Fire scorches centuries old forests in Tierra del Fuego
A federal state of emergency has been declared in Argentina's extreme south Tierra del Fuego province, where more than 6.000 hectares of centuries-old forest have been scorched or are threatened by several fires, forcing the evacuation of dozens of people, according to an official release.
Ecuador defaults on bonds; promised restructure
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has ordered halting payment on foreign bonds he calls “illegal” and “illegitimate”. If this is the case it would be Ecuador's second default in a decade.
Bush, Obama support emergency aid for US car industry
The outgoing George Bush administration said it may be willing to give emergency aid to the ailing US car industry, keeping open the prospects for a bailout the day after Congress failed to approve a deal.
WTO admits not enough consensus for world trade talks
World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy has abandoned attempts to restart the world trade talks. Lamy told ambassadors in Geneva that he has decided there was not sufficient consensus among major economies to call new ministerial talks on a trade deal.
Ex Nasdaq chairman fraud could trigger hedge funds-run
The former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market has been arrested and charged with securities fraud, in what may be one of the biggest fraud cases yet. Bernard Madoff ran a hedge fund which ran up 50 billion US dollars of fraudulent losses and which he called “one big lie”, prosecutors allege.
London police accepts full responsibility for Menezes death
London's Metropolitan Police accepts “full responsibility” for the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, its acting head said on Friday. Sir Paul Stephenson, the acting commissioner of the force, said officers made a “most terrible mistake” when they shot the innocent 27-year-old dead in Stockwell on July 22 2005.
A “boxing weekend” for Uruguay's ruling coalition congress
Uruguay's ruling coalition national congress of delegates meets this weekend to decide on the presidential candidate --or hopefuls-- for next October's election, but contrary to the long tradition of the catch-all movement, no consensus has been reached or seems achievable.
