Europe's banks borrowed nearly 490 billion Euros from the European Central Bank at its first-ever offer of three-year loans on Wednesday, encouraging demand for the Euro and stocks on hopes the funding will ease the two-year old debt crisis.
A former British First Sea Lord (2002-2006) and Commander during the South Atlantic conflict stated that Britain should respond to the Mercosur bloc’s decision to close their ports to ships that fly the Falklands/Malvinas flag, by sending a nuclear submarine to protect the Islands, the Telegraph newspaper reported Wednesday.
Members of the Falklands elected Legislative Assembly deeply regret the Mercosur decision to ban Islands flagged vessels from entering their ports, but also understands “the bullying tactics from Argentina”, said an official Wednesday release from the Falklands’ government.
As previously reported by Mercopress, Mr David Tatham, a former Governor of the Falkland Islands, stood down as chair of the Falkland Islands Association at the recent Annual General Meeting of the Association held on 10th December after the Battle Day Ceremony of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in London.
By Ian Dunt @IanDunt<http://twitter.com/iandunt - “The protection of peoples' self-determination to choose their own government is the protection of the weak from the strong”
“It is unacceptable to engage in an economic blockade of the Falklands, there can be no justification, legal, moral or political, for efforts to intimidate the people of the Falkland Islands”, said Foreign Officer Minister Jeremy Browne on Wednesday.
Reacting to the news this week that all Mercosur member countries had agreed to close their ports to ships flying the Falkland Islands flag, Cheryl Roberts, chair of the Falkland Islands Fishing Companies Association, stated that: “It is still too early to say exactly what the effect might be, whilst obviously disappointing we are now working to find solutions to minimise any potential impacts, both operational and economic, of the recent decision.
“Malvinas is not an Argentine cause, it’s a global cause because they are taking our fisheries and oil resources” said Argentine president Cristina Fernandez on taking the Mercosur rotating chair for the next six months.
Mercosur member countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) finally agreed Tuesday to close its ports to ships flying the flag of the disputed Falkland/Malvinas Islands, announced Uruguay's president at the closing of the group’s two-day summit in Montevideo.
President Hugo Chavez claimed that a small group of Paraguayan lawmakers, manipulated by a “powerful black hand”, are impeding the long-delayed access of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur.