Stories for March 10th 2015

Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 08:34 UTC
Spain insists in blocking Gibraltar from EU single sky measures

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo has renewed his bid to have Gibraltar excluded from the European Union aviation measures. According to Spanish wire reports he raised the issue in Riga during a conference of foreign ministers which was intended to focus on the crisis with Russia and Ukraine.
Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 08:07 UTC
US confirms sanctions against seven top officials from Maduro's regime

United States President Obama on Monday issued a new Executive Order (E.O.) declaring a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela.
Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 07:05 UTC
Brazilian lawmakers accused of Petrobras graft fight back

Brazil’s congressional heads denied involvement in the country’s largest graft scandal after being named among dozens of politicians for investigation. Renan Calheiros and Eduardo Cunha, the heads of the Senate and Lower House respectively, and Rio de Janeiro Senator Lindbergh Farias all rejected allegations of graft in the Petrobras kickback scheme dubbed “Carwash.”
Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 06:56 UTC
Renewal of car quotas with Mexico reveals shortcomings of Brazilian industry

Brazil and Mexico announced the renewal of vehicle quotas for four years, delaying the implementation of a free-trade agreement between the two countries. Under the new agreement, Brazil and Mexico will permit $1.56 billion of duty-free vehicle imports for the first year of the agreement. That amount will rise 3% each year until the agreement expires, in 2019, when they’ll return to a free-trade regime.
Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 06:46 UTC
ECLAC estimates 28% of Latin America's population live in poverty

Poverty affected 28% of Latin America’s population in 2014, revealing that its decline has stalled at around that level since 2012, while indigence rose to 12.0% from 11.3% during the same two-year period in an overall context of economic deceleration, according to the projections from a study released by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.
Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 06:33 UTC
Journalist who first reported Nisman's death sues Aerolineas and Telam

Following the death of special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, an Argentine-Israeli journalist who first reported the death has sued two state-owned companies that publicized his private data.
Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 06:17 UTC
Saudi Arabia largest importer of defense equipment in 2014, and probably 2015

Saudi Arabia has replaced India as the largest importer of defense equipment worldwide and took the top spot as the number one trading partner for the US in 2014, according to IHS’ annual Global Defense Trade Report.
Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 06:12 UTC
Former French Olympic sports' figures die in helicopter collision in Argentina

Two helicopters have collided in mid-air in northern Argentina, killing 10 people including cast members filming a French reality show, officials said. The crash happened Monday afternoon in a mountainous part of La Rioja, a scenic area popular with tourists, around 1,100 kilometres north of the capital Buenos Aires.
Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 06:02 UTC
Commonwealth Day 2015: Message from The Queen, Head of the Commonwealth

One simple lesson from history is that when people come together to talk, to exchange ideas and to develop common goals, wonderful things can happen. So many of the world's greatest technological and industrial achievements have begun as partnerships between families, countries, and even continents. But, as we are often reminded, the opposite can also be true. When common goals fall apart, so does the exchange of ideas. And if people no longer trust or understand each other, the talking will soon stop too.
Tuesday, March 10th 2015 - 03:21 UTC
Argentina's top tax official attends HSBC hearings at UK Parliament

Argentina wants HSBC Holdings Plc to repatriate 3.5 billion dollars the bank's Argentine branch moved offshore to help clients evade taxes and move capital abroad, the country's tax chief Ricardo Echegaray said on Monday during a hearing which took place at the House of Commons in London, where top executives of HSBC were present.