Stories for March 2014

Saturday, March 22nd 2014 - 08:01 UTC
The Falklands/Malvinas: Brazil’s next regional headache?

By Oliver Stuenkel (*) - Brazil, foreign policy observers often point out, is blessed. Contrary to many other emerging powers such as China or India, it is located in a region that rarely experiences interstate tension or war. Not only can Brazil live on a relatively small defense budget, while India is the world's largest arms importer. Brazil can also dedicate considerable time and energy towards extending its global diplomatic reach without constantly being forced to deal with trouble in its neighborhood.
Saturday, March 22nd 2014 - 07:50 UTC
Malvinas Families wish to have a chapel at Darwin cemetery and requested the “Pope's mediation”

The Malvinas war next of kin are trying to have a chapel or a sanctuary built at the Darwin cemetery, in the Falkland Islands where the remains of 237 Argentine combatants are buried. The idea is to convert “this space in dispute in a peregrination place”, according to a report from the Argentine official news agency Telam.
Saturday, March 22nd 2014 - 07:37 UTC
Pope calls on the mafia to change or 'end up in hell, at annual ceremony for the mafiosi victims

Pope Francis, in an annual ceremony held to remember the hundreds of innocent people murdered by the Italian mafia, made a solemn plea for mobsters to change or else “end up in hell”. The mafia continues to plague much of southern Italy: just on Monday, a four-year-old boy was shot dead, along with his mother and her boyfriend, near the southern city of Taranto in a suspected mob hit.
Saturday, March 22nd 2014 - 07:31 UTC
Mercosur and EU in another effort to advance in the long delayed trade agreement

Mercosur and European Union chief negotiators met on Friday in Brussels to define if conditions are ready for the exchange of tariffs reductions proposals with the purpose of reaching an ambitious trade agreement which was started back in 1999 and has yet to mature.
Saturday, March 22nd 2014 - 07:11 UTC
Falklands' prosperity and economic boom surprises visiting Brazilian delegation

Visiting Brazilian political advisor and environmentalist Eduardo Viola emphatically expressed support for the Falkland Islands’ right of self-determination during a press conference in Stanley with other visiting Brazilian colleagues, reports this week's edition of Penguin News.
Friday, March 21st 2014 - 09:50 UTC
Unasur 'democratic clause' comes into force after ratification by Uruguay and Colombia

Any country that suffers an interruption to its democratic order will be automatically excluded from Unasur (Union of South American Nations), the bloc announced this week, after its “democratic clause” came into force and as Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed that a US-funded campaign is trying to ouster him.
Friday, March 21st 2014 - 09:44 UTC
Cristina Fernández ends visit to France with references to Peron and De Gaulle

President Cristina Fernandez on the last day of her visit to France, and escorted by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, inaugurated on Thursday Argentina's pavilion at the Salon du Livre in Paris, one of Europe's too cultural events, and also praised the long standing ties between the two countries and evoked leaders Juan Domingo Peron and Charles de Gaulle.
Friday, March 21st 2014 - 09:35 UTC
Falklands' veteran Simon Weston featured at the National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery in London and the BBC unveiled their first joint painted portrait commission – of Falklands War veteran Simon Weston by artist Nicky Philipps. Weston was voted last September by viewers of BBC One’s The One Show as the public figure who most deserved to have his picture displayed at the National Portrait Gallery.
Friday, March 21st 2014 - 08:36 UTC
Major corruption probe into Brazil's transport system providers

Brazil's anti-monopolies commission announced on Thursday it had begun investigating allegations that transport providers, including several large international firms, had operated a price-rigging cartel for 15 years in major cities.
Friday, March 21st 2014 - 06:09 UTC
US and Paraguay to collaborate in combating organized crime

United States Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson said Washington is considering increasing cooperation with Paraguay in combating trans-national crime, particularly Brazilian organizations involved in durgs and arms trafficking.