Stories for April 2010

Tuesday, April 13th 2010 - 00:17 UTC
China reports first trade deficit in 6 years and drastic drop in bank lending

China reported a rare monthly trade deficit for the first time since May 2004. China’s foreign trade was up nearly 43% in March to over 231 billion USD, out of which exports accounted for about 112.1 billion and imports about 119.4 billion.
Monday, April 12th 2010 - 23:12 UTC
Castro brothers against opening Cuba, because that’s the end of them, claims Clinton

The Cuban brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro do not want to normalize ties with Washington because they would “lose their excuses” for the country's lack of development and openness, said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.
Monday, April 12th 2010 - 23:04 UTC
Mercosur and EU trade negotiators must “deliver” before May summit

Mercosur is waiting for “dialogue contributions” from the European Union to decide on negotiations for a political and commercial agreement with the EU. Brussels is expected to make its move at the end of April on time for a formal launching in May of the decade-long delayed but very much needed block to block talks.
Monday, April 12th 2010 - 15:16 UTC
Falkland Islands Tourist Board Launches Accommodation Guide

The Falkland Islands Tourist Board this week launched a comprehensive new accommodation guide, as part of an ongoing strategy to develop and grow the land-based sector of the Falkland Islands tourism industry.
Monday, April 12th 2010 - 05:30 UTC
Rio do Janerio’s mud slides death toll could reach 400; focus on “responsibility”

While rescuers raced against time amid fading hopes of finding survivors of a huge mudslide in the Rio do Janeiro area with over 400 people now feared dead in some of the worst flooding to swamp Brazil in decades, focus has turned on responsibility for the magnitude of the catastrophe.
Monday, April 12th 2010 - 05:25 UTC
Argentine Central Bank props the Peso with Euro operations

Argentina has been forced to buy Euros in the local market to control the exchange rate of the US dollar relative to the Peso in a complicated move but necessary to avoid the risk of having additional Central Bank funds seized in New York.
Monday, April 12th 2010 - 05:23 UTC
Market test for Greece’s Euro zone and IMF 51 billion USD “soft” loan aid

European finance officials agreed Sunday to make an estimated 41 billion US dollars in loans available to Greece to help fight the threat of default. The loans would be charged at below-market rates to enable Athens to keep its borrowing costs down as it struggles to raise money to finance its runaway public debt.
Monday, April 12th 2010 - 05:20 UTC
Chilean Army de-mining fields bordering the Magellan Strait

Chile’s Army demining team announced last week the clearance of 5.799 mines in the north of Tierra del Fuego next to the so called Primera Angostura (First Narrow) of the Magellan Strait.
Monday, April 12th 2010 - 05:18 UTC
Living myth Fidel Castro, “a man with a superior intellect by heartless”

Dissident Cuban neurosurgeon Hilda Molina, now living in Argentina, said in an interview that Fidel Castro once felt “a very marked inclination” towards her.
Monday, April 12th 2010 - 05:13 UTC
Kissinger accused of turning blind eye to Latam military regimes political killings

Henry Kissinger while United States Secretary of State, halted a plan to warn South American military regimes against international political assassinations such as those involving the 1976 death in Washington of former Chilean minister Orlando Letelier, a document shows.