Stories for January 3rd 2015

Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 08:02 UTC
Euro becomes the official currency in Lithuania: 19th member of the zone

The Euro entered circulation in Lithuania on New Year, bringing the number of European Union (EU) Member States using the single European currency to 19. The European Central Bank (ECB) announced that Lithuania also joined its banking supervision under the Single Supervisory Mechanism.
Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 07:56 UTC
Dragui remarks makes Euro fall to its lowest against the dollar since June 2010

The euro fell Friday to a 4 ½-year low against the dollar after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi indicated the bank could soon back a government bond-buying program to deal with alarmingly low inflation across the 19-country Euro-zone.
Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 07:16 UTC
Falklands' has a non-official anthem, already played in two public occasions

A non official anthem celebrating the Falkland Islands and which has been played at least on two public occasions is making the round of Facebook and can be enjoyed in U Tube.
Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 06:54 UTC
Top French economist refused to accept the Legion d'Honneur

France's influential economist Thomas Piketty, author of the bestseller “Capital in the 21st Century”, refused to accept the country's highest award, the Legion d'Honneur, arguing it is not the government's job to decide who is honorable and criticizing policies of the current Socialist administration.
Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 06:42 UTC
Mujica's wife will run for mayor of Montevideo, Uruguay's main electoral base

Senator Lucia Topolansky, the wife of outgoing Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, will run for mayor of Montevideo in the May 2015 elections, representatives of the governing centre leftist Broad Front coalition announced this week.
Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 06:32 UTC
Mujica defends Brazilian leadership in the region and called for strong unity

Uruguayan president Jose Mujica defended Brazil's leadership in helping Latin America carve a place and advance in the world context, but at the same time underlined that even when Brazil seems large to its neighbors, together with the rest of the countries, the region is still small in global terms.
Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 06:11 UTC
Maduro and Biden shake hands and meet briefly at Rousseff's inauguration

On the sidelines of the inauguration of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff at the Planalto Palace seat of Brazil's Executive, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met briefly with Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro in a hand-shake facilitated by Uruguay President Jose Mujica.
Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 06:07 UTC
Panama Canal planning major transshipment port on the Pacific entrance

The Panama Canal Board of Directors this week formally approved the development and construction of a transshipment port in Panama’s Corozal region. Upon completion, the port will have the capacity to handle more than five million TEUs within a 120-hectare area at the Canal’s entrance to the Pacific. The project is now awaiting the final step for approval from Panama’s National Assembly.
Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 05:51 UTC
Battle of the Falkland Islands centennial commemorated with £2 coin issue

The Falkland Islands Government & Treasury have issued a new £2 coin which commemorates the Centennial of the Battle of the Falkland Islands. At the start of World War I in 1914, the Falkland Islands was an important strategic naval base that allowed crucial control of the British Royal Navy of the South Atlantic and the Magellan Strait connecting with the Pacific.
Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 05:43 UTC
We have so much to learn from Cuba

By Robert F Kennedy Jr. (*) - In early December, President Barack Obama announced the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than five decades of a misguided policy which my uncle, John F. Kennedy, and my father, Robert F. Kennedy, had been responsible for enforcing after the U.S. embargo against the country was first implemented in October 1960 by the Eisenhower administration.