Stories for 2013

Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 21:42 UTC
Uruguay and Singapore sign open skies agreement including hub and regional flights

Singapore has signed a new Open Skies Agreement with Uruguay. The agreement allows designated airlines to fly between both countries and it is more liberal than conventional ones, said the Singapore Ministry of Transport in a statement on Wednesday.
Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 21:24 UTC
Brazil offers Paraguay Mercosur chair, but apparently Argentina is not convinced

Brazil offered Paraguay the rotating chair of Mercosur as of next December, as part of an overall understanding to have the landlocked country return to the block, while accepting the incorporation of Venezuela as a full member of the group. Paraguay rejects Venezuela’s membership alleging it was done against the will of its Senate and in breach of national and international law and of the Mercosur charter.
Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 19:36 UTC
Falklands’ ‘FOGL and Desire Combination’ prepare to drill five wells next year

Falkland Oil & Gas is to buy a smaller Falklands-based firm to create a “combination” company with licences to search for oil both to the north and south of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. FOGL said on Thursday it had agreed to buy Desire Petroleum offering 0.6 FOGL “consideration” shares for each Desire share, in a deal valuing Desire at 61 million pounds (99 million dollars).
Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 19:29 UTC
Collapse of a 35bn dollars empire; Brazil’s Eike Batista defaulted on 45 million interest payment

Two days ago, former Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista crossed a line. He started to default on a 45 million dollars interest payments on his oil and gas company, OGX's, bonds. The default will be official on October 30th, according to Bloomberg. That leaves bondholders, like PIMCO, the largest bond fund in the world helmed by legendary investor Bill Gross, taking a massive hit. And what's worse is that there could be more to come, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 19:23 UTC
Brazil, a giant but with “a lot of fat and much in the way of muscle”

Brazil, Latin America's largest economy is in dire need of structural reforms and reduced government bloat to fuel sustainable growth, analysts say. And this will not happen overnight and will take massive political will. A giant but it carries “a lot of fat and not much in the way of muscle”.
Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 19:17 UTC
Moody’s lowers Brazil’s credit rating to stable from positive: rising debt and weak growth

Brazil’s currency Real declined from its highest level in two weeks after Moody’s Investors Service cited rising debt and weak growth in lowering its outlook on the country’s credit rating to stable from positive.
Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 11:03 UTC
Giant squid washes ashore in the Cantabrian Sea; conservation plans

The Cantabrian Maritime Museum (MMC) in the north of Spain has concluded the conditioning for its conservation of a giant squid that was found washed ashore in a beach of Asturias and which was catalogued as an adult female of the cephalopod “Architeuthis Dux” specie weighing 180 kilos and with a total length of eight metres.
Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 07:19 UTC
Repsol expands 70% a natural gas processing plant capacity in Bolivia

Bolivian President Evo Morales and the chairman and CEO of Spanish energy major Repsol, Antonio Brufau, inaugurated the newly expanded Margarita natural gas processing plant, with a capacity increased of nearly 70%.
Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 07:09 UTC
Argentina will challenge Uruguay’s decision to expand pulp mill production at The Hague Court of Justice

Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman has confirmed that Argentina will go before the international court of justice at The Hague over the decision of Uruguayan president José Mujica, who on Wednesday authorised increased production at the UPM (ex-Botnia) paper plant.
Thursday, October 3rd 2013 - 06:58 UTC
Spain proposes sharing embassies and consulates with Pacific Alliance countries

Spain has proposed sharing embassies, consulates and trade offices with its Latinamerican associate-members of the Pacific Alliance, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. Foreign minister Jose Manuel García Margallo said that the idea of sharing some embassies and consulates already is operational in the European Union.