Stories for November 25th 2010

Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 21:25 UTC
First time ever woman president (for a few days) in Uruguay

Uruguay’s First Lady and speaker of the main Senate group in the ruling coalition Lucia Topolansky will be sworn as interim president on Friday, the first woman-president in the history of the Uruguayan democracy.
Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 21:24 UTC
Germany out of the woods and heading for full employment, says minister

Germany’s Economy minister Rainer Bruederle has given an upbeat assessment of his country's recovery, including the assertion that “full employment will soon be possible”. He said that Germans were “doing well and spending again”, and that domestic consumption was strong.
Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 20:58 UTC
World corn production slightly lower; lowest inventory in four years

World corn production will be 0.5% lower than forecast last month as reduced U.S. and Brazilian crops result in smaller-than-estimated inventories, the International Grains Council reported on Thursday.
Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 20:44 UTC
“Favelas’ war” rages in Rio do Janeiro for fifth day running: 30 dead

Armoured personnel carriers from the Brazilian navy rolled through smoke-filled streets in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday as police battled (favelas) slum-based drug gangs for a fifth consecutive day leaving at least 30 dead and almost 200 arrested.
Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 20:42 UTC
EasyJet announced Liverpool/Gibraltar three times weekly service

EasyJet, one of UK's largest airlines and which also claims to give best value, launched Thursday a brand new route to Gibraltar from Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 20:04 UTC
HMS Scott leaves Plymouth for the 2010/2011 Antarctic season

The Royal Navy deep water survey ship HMS Scott deployed to the Antarctic early morning Thursday from Plymouth, which coincides with the 100th anniversary of Captain Scott's final expedition to the area.
Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 04:34 UTC
Latinamerica not involved in an arms race and can further reduce defence costs

Latinamerican countries are not involved in an arms race and can further cut into military expenditure because it is essentially a region of peace, said the Defence ministers of the Americas IXth conference meeting in Bolivia.
Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 04:29 UTC
First possible suspected case of “mad cow” in humans sounds alarm bells in Brazil

Brazilian health officials said this week that a suspected case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal illness that destroys brain tissue, probably wasn’t caused by eating beef of an animal infected with the mad cow sickness.
Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 04:26 UTC
The Economist analyzes Uruguay’s debate on rejecting the “Expiration Law”

Néstor Kirchner Argentina’s late former president first became popular by pushing for the repeal of the amnesties and pardons that prior governments had granted to members of the country’s bloody 1976-83 dictatorship. Argentines cheered when the Supreme Court ruled the laws unconstitutional in 2005, and have supported the hundreds of prosecutions for human-rights abuses that have been launched since then.
Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 04:25 UTC
Large sovereign bond trader adheres to Germany’s “hair-cut” proposal

One of the world's largest private buyers of government bonds says the private sector should bear some of the cost of financial rescues such as for the Irish Republic. The comments came from Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of Pimco, which holds investments worth 1.3 trillion US dollars (equivalent to 80% of Brazil's GDP).