The ITUC has called the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) a major setback for employment and workers’ rights prospects, and signaled the determination of unions in TPP countries to oppose it. After five years of secret negotiations, twelve Asia/Pacific-Rim Ministers signed the agreement today in Auckland, New Zealand, amid strong criticism from trade unions and other civil society organisations.
The Trans Pacific Partnership, one of the biggest multinational trade deals ever, has been signed by ministers from its 12 member nations in New Zealand. The ceremony in Auckland brings the huge trade pact, which has been five years in the making, another step towards to becoming a reality. But the TPP continues to face opposition.
President Barack Obama visited an American mosque on Wednesday and declared that attacks on Islam were an attack on all religions, in an effort to counter rhetoric from Donald Trump and other Republican presidential candidates that has alienated Muslims.
Argentina announced Tuesday that it reached a $900 million preliminary accord to settle its pending debt with 50,000 Italian holders of defaulted Argentine government bonds. Finance minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said that the agreement with Italian bondholders includes the Argentine government's acknowledgement of the debt and reasonable interest.
Norway's Statoil giant announced on Tuesday an agreement with French Total to acquire a 15% working interest in an offshore exploration block in Uruguay's continental shelf. The announcement comes only weeks before Total is preparing to drill its first exploratory well in Uruguayan waters.
BP slumped to its biggest annual loss last year and announced thousands more job cuts on Tuesday, showing that even one of the nimblest oil producers is struggling in the worst market downturn in over a decade.
A group of four Members of Parliament from Britain will be visiting the Falkland Islands as guests of FIG from February 11-16, accompanied by Sukey Cameron MBE, from the Falkland Islands Government Office in London.
FIFA has cut off funding to the corruption-hit confederations for football in the Americas, the global football body said on Monday, in a move which could cause future cash flow problems for the two organizations.
The World Health Organization has declared the mosquito-borne Zika virus to be an international public health emergency due to its link to thousands of suspected cases of birth defects in Brazil.
French President Francois Hollande called Monday for an end to US sanctions on Cuba during a historic visit to Paris by President Raul Castro, seen as a key step in rebuilding ties with the West.