The Falkland Islands are effectively “under a sea-blockade from Argentina” and after years of quiet diplomacy behind the scenes “we are now in a war of attrition and we need to take the war to the enemy” according to Dr Barry Elsby who on Thursday was elected to fill the vacant seat at the Falkland Islands eight member Legislative Assembly.
The British Embassy in Montevideo is discussing with Uruguayan authorities the implications of President Jose Mujica public statement that Falklands/Malvinas flagged vessels “are banned from docking in the port of Montevideo”.
Uruguayan President José ‘Pepe’ Mujica denied on Thursday afternoon suffering pressure from the Argentine government to restrict British ships from docking at Montevideo’s ports.
The World Trade Organization reached on Thursday a landmark reform on its Government Procurement Agreement, opening 100 billion dollars of government contracts to foreign competition and paving the way for more countries, including China, to join the pact.
The world economic outlook is quite gloomy and will require action by all countries, starting with those in Europe, to head off an escalating crisis that carries risks of a global depression, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.
Fitch announced on Thursday it has downgraded the credit rating of six of the world’s largest banks. The banks include US’ Bank of America, British Barclays, and France’s BNP Paribas.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Brazil expanded fourfold between 2005 and last year, from 162.8 billion to 660.5 billion dollars, the country’s central bank said on Thursday.
Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo published a report on this week revealing a series of 266 telegrams from the Brazilian embassy in Santiago that unveiled strong economic and diplomatic ties between the nations’ military regimes in the early 1970s.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said his country is likely to face new jolts from the Euro zone debt crisis amid rumors it could lose its triple-A credit rating.
President Dilma Rousseff on Thursday signed a law banning smoking in all enclosed public spaces in Brazil. The new text will make Brazil, which has a population of more than 191 million, the largest country in the world to go smoke-free.