Stories for March 2017

Thursday, March 16th 2017 - 05:58 UTC
Relief in Europe: “Netherlands said No to the wrong kind of populism”, Dutch PM Rutte claims victory

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday claimed a dominating parliamentary election victory over anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, who failed the year's first litmus test for populism in Europe. Provisional results with over half the votes counted suggested Rutte's party won 32 seats in the 150-member legislature, 13 more than Wilders' party, which took only third place with 19 seats. The surging CDA Christian Democrats claimed 20.
Thursday, March 16th 2017 - 05:37 UTC
Scotland will be out of the EU either with UK or independent, PM May tells SNP leader

Prime Minister Theresa May has claimed that Scotland will be leaving the European Union regardless of whether or not it votes for independence. Speaking during an exchange with the SNP's Angus Robertson, Theresa May also warned against “constitutional game-playing”.
Thursday, March 16th 2017 - 04:56 UTC
Political seism in Brazil: prosecutor asks Supreme Court to open 83 new graft investigations

Brazil's top public prosecutor seismically expanded a corruption probe of the country's political establishment on Tuesday, asking the Supreme Court to open 83 new investigations of politicians named in explosive plea bargain testimony. Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot also requested that the Court send 211 other requests to lower courts based on much-anticipated testimony by executives of engineering group Odebrecht implicated in Brazil's biggest-ever graft scandal.
Wednesday, March 15th 2017 - 08:04 UTC
Lula da Silva denies all charges in court; “I have been a victim for three years”

Brazil's former president has appeared in court to deny allegations he was part of a plot to obstruct a massive corruption probe by keeping a former Petrobras executive from revealing what he knew. News media websites in Brazil published Tuesday's testimony by Lula da Silva, who told a federal court in Brasilia that he didn't even know Nestor Cervero, a former director of the State oil company.
Wednesday, March 15th 2017 - 07:56 UTC
Two US airlines cancel flights to Cuba: excess of capacity

On Monday, two US airlines announced that they have plans to cancel their flights to Cuba, one of which is Fort Lauderdale-based Silver Airways, whose representatives said they had made the “difficult but necessary” decision to cancel its services to Cuba from April 22.
Wednesday, March 15th 2017 - 07:26 UTC
Scottish support for independence at its highest, but EU popularity has fallen

Support for Scottish independence is at its highest-ever level, according to an academic study, but the Scottish Social Attitudes survey also suggested the popularity of the European Union has fallen. The researchers said this suggested focusing on EU membership may not be the best way to swing more voters towards independence.
Wednesday, March 15th 2017 - 07:12 UTC
Trump furious: media leak shows he paid US$ 38m in tax on income of US$ 150m in 2005

US President Donald Trump paid US$38m in tax on more than US$150m income in 2005, a leaked tax return shows. Two pages of the tax return were revealed by US TV network MSNBC, triggering an angry response from the White House, arguing that publishing the tax return was illegal.
Wednesday, March 15th 2017 - 06:52 UTC
Temer moved out of the presidential palace because of “bad energy and ghosts”

Brazilian president Michel Temer confessed in an interview with the leading news magazine Veja that he and his family moved out of the nation’s Alvorada Palace, the official presidential residence, over bad energy and “ghosts” that kept him and First Lady Marcela Temer from sleeping well at night.
Wednesday, March 15th 2017 - 06:38 UTC
Mercosur expects to sign a trade deal with the EU by year end taking advantage of Trump's isolationism

Mercosur expects to sign a framework accord this year for a trade deal with the European Union as the U.S. shift to isolationism under President Donald Trump encourages it to look outside the hemisphere for opportunities, Brazil's foreign minister Aloysio Nunes said on Tuesday.
Tuesday, March 14th 2017 - 21:34 UTC
Death of swimming pigs of Big Major Cay shocks Bahamas

For many years the swimming pigs of Big Major Cay, also known as Pig Beach, in the Bahamas Exuma island chain, have been a major tourist attraction. Running wild on the uninhabited island, swimming out to meet boatloads of tourists and happily gobbling down the food and snacks they brought, the friendly porkers enjoyed a porcine paradise on their island in the sun.