Stories for November 2010

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).
Thursday, November 25th 2010 - 04:19 UTC
UK main supermarkets agree to origin labels for meats and dairy products

UK's main supermarkets have signed up to a new voluntary code of conduct on food labelling to provide consumers with clearer information on the origin of their food. The new principles apply to meat and processed meat products as well as dairy products.
Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 22:12 UTC
Petrobras abandons Ecuador: no agreement on new oil contracts

Brazil’s Petrobras is abandoning Ecuador after not having reached an agreement on the new oil contracts with the government while Spanish-Argentine Repsol-YPF will remain, announced Minister of Non renewable natural resources Wilson Pastor.
Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 21:21 UTC
Falklands/Malvinas: Brazil joins Argentina in criticizing UK’s “unilateral actions”

The Brazilian government questioned UK’s “unilateral actions” regarding the (Falklands) Malvinas Islands and called for the sovereignty “long standing dispute” to reach “as soon as possible a solution”.
Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 21:02 UTC
Promoting trade and political links with Africa, Lula da Silva’s next job

A Lula da Silva Institute will be fully involved in Africa, the world’s poorest continent, and (Brazilian) President Lula will be fully dedicated to that task when he steps down from office next January first, announced a top Brazilian official.
Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 20:55 UTC
US on the path of Japan’s stagflation of 18 years ago, says Nobel Prize

Economics 2008 Nobel Prize Paul Krugman said the United States is heading along a path of stagnation and deflation similar to that of Japan 18 years ago given the critical economic situation and the uncertain political scenario following the recent mid term elections that brought to Congress diehard Republicans.
Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 20:50 UTC
Colombian oil industry booming; Ecopetrol plans 8.5 billion investments

Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol announced investments of roughly 8.5 billion US dollars in 2011, with 5% of that total to be allocated for projects in the United States, Brazil and Peru.