Stories for April 12th 2013

Friday, April 12th 2013 - 23:12 UTC
Thatcherism spread far and wide but with a hollowed middle class, for how long?

By Gwynne Dyer - Margaret Thatcher was the woman who began the shift to the right that has affected almost all the countries of the West in the past three decades. But it is an open question whether even the crash of 2008 and the ensuing prolonged recession have finally ended the long reign of her ideas in Western politics.
Friday, April 12th 2013 - 06:54 UTC
Maduro pledges he will be elected president and later ‘president’ of Mercosur

In his closing massive campaign rally in Caracas, Thursday evening incumbent candidate Nicolas Maduro pledged that next Sunday he will win the Venezuelan presidential election and later will take over the presidency of Mercosur.
Friday, April 12th 2013 - 06:50 UTC
Mujica ‘deepest apologies’ to Cristina Fernandez for the ‘coarse, jail-language’

“My deepest apologies to those whom I might have hurt with my words in recent days” said Uruguayan president Jose Mujica in his daily broadcast on Thursday, the first public apology for the controversial expressions he used last week to refer to Argentine president Cristina Fernandez and her late husband Nestor Kirchner.
Friday, April 12th 2013 - 06:42 UTC
Maradona launches “Cristina 2015” re-re-election in Caracas next to Maduro

Argentina’s football legend Diego Maradona was present on Thursday afternoon in down-town Caracas at the closing campaign rally of Venezuelan incumbent presidential candidate Nicolas Maduro but with a special touch: a red t-shirt promoting the re-re-election of Cristina Fernandez in 2015.
Friday, April 12th 2013 - 06:39 UTC
Argentina inflation congress index for March was 1.54% and 24.43% in last 12 months

Despite the efforts from the administration of President Cristina Fernandez that brokered a price freeze for another two months with the main supermarket chains of Argentina, March inflation according to the average of private estimates stood at 1.54% and 24.43% in the last twelve months.
Friday, April 12th 2013 - 06:35 UTC
Argentina’s Antarctica flagship ‘Almirante Irizar’ remains ‘grounded’ in controversy

Six years ago this week Argentina’s icebreaker ‘Almirante Irizar’ and symbol of the country’s presence in Antarctica caught fire and was an almost loss. The government pledged to have the vessel back sailing in a couple of years but now it has surfaced that only 50% of repairs have been completed and the whole enterprise is involved in deep controversy.
Friday, April 12th 2013 - 06:19 UTC
Dairy produce push FAO food price index one percent higher in March

The FAO Food Price Index (FPI) crept higher by one percent in March compared with a month before, driven mainly by an 11% increase in dairy. Dairy products carry a 17% weight among the various commodity prices included in the calculation of the overall FPI.
Friday, April 12th 2013 - 06:15 UTC
Students take to the streets of Santiago to demand education reform

Chile’s student movement on Thursday offered another demonstration of its clout, bringing tens of thousands onto the streets of the capital Santiago to demand the overhaul of an educational model that dates from the Pinochet dictatorship.
Friday, April 12th 2013 - 06:06 UTC
Brazil calls emergency meeting to address massive influx of illegal immigrants

The Brazilian government called this week an emergency meeting to discuss measures to curb the influx of hundreds of illegal immigrants along its northern border.
Friday, April 12th 2013 - 05:59 UTC
Brazil and the US upgrading diplomatic ties and thinking in more bilateral trade

President Dilma Rousseff will make the first formal state visit by a Brazilian leader to the United States in nearly two decades, according to Reuters’ news agency. The trip allegedly will occur later this year likely in October, officials said on condition of anonymity because the White House has not yet announced the visit.