German President Joachim Gauck arrived on Sunday to Brazil with economic and trade issues as the centre of his visit. The trip to Sao Paulo marks the start of the Year of Germany in Brazil, which Gauck's predecessor Christian Wulff agreed on with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in May 2011.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has become the second cabinet minister to say he would vote for Britain to leave the EU if a referendum were held now. But, like education secretary Michael Gove, he said David Cameron must be given a chance to bring powers back from Brussels before deciding.
This week a Chilean court found two retired naval officers guilty in connection with the kidnapping, torture and murder of a Chilean-British citizen in September 1973; UK Ambassador Jon Benjamin made a statement about the verdicts in trial of those accused.
HMS Protector, the Royal Navy’s Ice Patrol Ship, has returned to Portsmouth at the end of a nine-month deployment to the ‘Frozen Continent’. Operating in the British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands throughout the Austral Summer, the ship conducted three intensive work periods in the ice, and a fourth work period in the waters surrounding South Georgia.
The head of Argentina’s Lower House Budget and Finance Committee and former Finance minister Roberto Feletti said that the whitewashing bill should allow the entrance of “around 5 billion dollars” into Argentina’s market. For the MP, the government is “fighting a historic battle to block” what he called a “market coup.”
The so called ‘blue dollar’ traded in Argentina’s parallel market ended on Friday just above 10 Pesos after having reached record highs earlier in the week (10.55 Pesos) and following the Thursday announcement of a tax amnesty bill and other ‘whitewashing’ financial instruments.
Argentina’s Secretary of Domestic Commerce Guillermo Moreno wants to bring the foreign exchange black market ‘back in line’ using new dollar securities the government plans to issue locally as part of a major tax amnesty plan, according to Alfredo Piano, Chairman of Banco Piano SA.
Jose Ignacio Landaluce, the ruling Spanish Popular Party MP and Mayor of Algeciras, said that the Queen’s message of support for Gibraltar (and Falklands) was greeted with “surprise and considerable discomfort” in Spain. His was the only reaction from any Spanish official to a statement that was warmly welcomed in Gibraltar.
A group of Tory MPs will attempt to force a House of Commons vote over a referendum on the UK’s European Union membership in a fresh blow to David Cameron’s authority. They have criticised the failure to include legislation paving the way for PM Cameron’s promised public vote on the EU.
Germany's newly launched anti-Euro party will clear a key hurdle this weekend to taking part in September's national election but has yet to rally enough support to win seats in parliament.