Argentine President Cristina Fernandez will not run for any office in this year's general elections, but she has set up supporters in key candidacies for the primaries in which 13 presidential hopefuls are participating. These include her two closest advisors since the death of her husband Nestor Kirchner and they are, son Maximo Kirchner, and Carlos Zannini, the Legal and Technical Secretary of the Executive.
Public support for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has slipped to a record low, with her disapproval ratings rising to 65%, according to pollsters Datafolha and published on Sunday. Support for the embattled leader caught by a sliding economy and embroiled in a major graft scandal involving state-owned corporation Petrobras, slumped to 10%.
Results from Tierra del Fuego in the extreme south of Argentina put Victory Front senator Rosana Bertone on course for victory in Sunday's governor's election, although she will have to face a run-off with second-placed Federico Sciurano. With 82.8% of the vote counted Bertone led on 41.8%, followed by Sciurano of the radical-Popular Fueguino Movement coalition who took 33.7%.
Argentina's opposition Radical Party (UCR) seized back Mendoza province (one of the country's five main electoral districts) after their Cambia Mendoza alliance, led by Alfredo Cornejo, defeated the Victory Front (FpV)’s Adolfo Bermejo, and had 48% of the vote at press time, 10 points more than the Peronist hopeful. Bermejo is a close ally of President Cristina Fernández.
The Sunday Express has revealed that a live-fire training exercise will be taking place in the Falkland Islands with the participation of Royal Marines deploying high velocity missiles against incoming attack aircraft with the purpose of demonstrating combat capacity and to show that the UK can deploy high readiness troops.
Margaret Thatcher accused the BBC of “assisting the enemy” during the Falklands War by broadcasting the moves British troops were likely to make before they actually happened, according to new documents revealed in the UK media.
Spanish government last Friday announced penalties that could reach more than €11 million against Spanish nationals, including companies involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. An EU coalition of three international NGOs, including Environmental Justice Foundation, Oceana and WWF described the fines as a historic moment in the battle against IUU fishing and are calling on other EU member states to follow suit with their own nationals.