Stories for March 31st 2010

Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 19:38 UTC
Putin’s visits Venezuela Friday, sets alarm bells ringing in Washington

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will pay his first visit to Venezuela to meet with President Hugo Chavez on April 2, a government source told RIA Novosti in Moscow on Wednesday.
Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 19:10 UTC
Chilean president announces housing emergency plan totalling 2.5 billion USD

Chilean President Sebastian Piñera announced this week the second part of his emergency reconstruction plan during a visit to the lower-middle class borough of Lo Prado. Beneficiaries of the new program are mostly lower middle class families.
Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 18:30 UTC
Euro zone Feb unemployment at its highest, 10%; Spain at record 19%

Unemployment rates reach double digits in February in the Euro zone to hit an 11-year high in the 16-nation bloc. The February unemployment rate stood at 10% — the highest level to hit European nations since August 1998 — tipping the unemployment rate into double digits for the first time in 2010.
Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 18:28 UTC
US and EU pledge 2.75 billion USD in aid to rebuild Haiti

United States and the European Union pledged Wednesday a combined 2.75 billion USD in aid for rebuilding Haiti following the January earthquake that killed about 200,000 people and devastated the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 18:24 UTC
High-quality oil in once guerrilla infested Colombian jungle

Petrominerales Ltd., mostly owned by Canadian companies said Monday that an oil well drilled in Colombia has produced a prolific 15,600 barrels of high-quality crude per day, following similarly strong results from two other wells on its Candelilla discovery.
Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 18:20 UTC
Texas Congress discuss violence from drug war along border with Mexico

The violence raging in Mexico’s drug war is worse now than the terror that enveloped Colombia during the 1980s and 1990s ever was, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve Mc Craw told state lawmakers this week in Austin.
Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 18:15 UTC
Former Defence minister leads in Colombia’s presidential May election

According to the latest poll by Ipsos-Napoleon Franco published by Colombian newspaper Semana over the weekend, the former Defence minister in President Alvaro Uribe cabinet, Juan Manuel Santos, is clearly ahead in the presidential polls with 36% vote intention.
Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 18:13 UTC
Colombia’s FARC warns next release only under “humanitarian exchange”

Colombian army Sgt. Pablo Emilio Moncayo emerged from more than a dozen years in captivity Tuesday as Marxist inspired drug funded FARC rebels released him to a humanitarian delegation headed by opposition Senator Piedad Cordoba.
Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 04:03 UTC
Analysts doubt Argentina can sell global bonds at one digit interest rate

Argentina’s accelerating inflation and deteriorating finances will undermine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s goal of selling global bonds with an interest rate below 10%, said Silvia Marengo who helps manage 500 million USD of debt at Falcon Private Bank in Zurich in a report compiled by Bloomberg.
Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 04:01 UTC
Two more Cuban dissidents on hunger strike; EU-Havana talks postponed

Two dissidents, one of them behind bars, have joined Guillermo Fariñas in a hunger strike, the unofficial Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation said Tuesday.