South American football president Nicolas Leoz has resigned on Tuesday from FIFA powerful executive committee on health and personal grounds. Leoz was accused by the BBC Panorama program in November 2010 of taking bribes in the 1990s from the now defunct sports rights agency ISL.
The Brazilian government has come to the rescue of the sugar-ethanol industry announcing that as of next May first the mandatory content of ethanol in gasoline will increase from 20% to 25%, taxes on the sugar-cane fuel will be eliminated and there will be soft loans to keep expansion going.
A suggestion by some British senior Members of Parliament advocating a change of name for the Falkland Islands capital, Stanley to Port Margaret Thatcher in honour of the late Baroness had a strong reply from the local weekly, Penguin News.
The UK public opinion controversy over the cost of Baroness Thatcher’s funeral has reached the Falkland Islands where a member of the public proposed a ‘six figure’ contribution towards the event from the local government.
Chilean authorities are feeling calmer with the exchange rate nearing 480 pesos per US dollar, Finance Minister Felipe Larrain said on Tuesday, as the currency retreated from the year-and-a-half highs it reached earlier this month.
Chilean president Sebastian Piñera on Monday named the head of a government agency that promotes gender equality to be the new education minister. Carolina Schmidt replaces Harald Beyer, who was impeached by Congress last week.
By R. Viswanathan (*) - Horacio Cartes of the Colorado party won the presidential elections held last Sunday in Paraguay. The Colorados had ruled the country continuously for 61 years in a one-party dictatorship until 2008 when Fernando Lugo, the leftist “Bishop of the Poor” defeated the Colorado candidate and made history.
In the midst of global economic uncertainty, Latin America has maintained steady levels of economic growth and financial resilience over the past decade. The region has a forecast of almost 4% economic growth in 2013, and it is this encouraging prospect that is the focus of the 2013 World Economic Forum on Latin America in Lima, Peru, which opened on Tuesday 23 until April 25.
Brazil’ aircraft manufacturer Embrear is again resurfacing suspicions regarding the sale of commercial planes to Aerolineas Argentinas involving several million dollars in surcharges. The company informed the US Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, that it is investigating companies from five different countries to which it sold aircraft allegedly in transactions suspicious of irregularities.
England will play three matches on their tour to Argentina and Uruguay this coming June, announced the Rugby Union in England. Stuart Lancaster’s side will face a CONSUR XV representing the South American nations in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Sunday, June 2 (3.30pm local time, 7.30pm BST).