Stories for April 2019

Monday, April 15th 2019 - 09:15 UTC
Sunday outages for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp users on Sunday experienced difficulties accessing the social network sites and messaging service. According to the Down Detector website, Facebook began experiencing technical issues at about 6.30am US Eastern Time with users affected worldwide.
Monday, April 15th 2019 - 08:20 UTC
Pompeo praised Paraguay's support for Venezuela's Guaidó and its role in the Lima Group

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held talks on Saturday with Paraguay's President Mario Abdo Benitez as part of a four-nation tour of Latin American allies focusing heavily on Venezuela and countering China's economic reach.
Sunday, April 14th 2019 - 08:55 UTC
Argentina issues diplomatic credentials to Guaidó's representative and withdraws from Unasur

Argentina reiterated its support for Venezuela’s opposition leader Friday by issuing diplomatic credentials to a new delegate and officially announcing its withdrawal from the regional UNASUR bloc, which has been criticized over its lack of action on Venezuela.
Sunday, April 14th 2019 - 08:38 UTC
NY Museum of Natural History embarrassed over a booking to honor Brazilian president Bolsonaro

New York’s Museum of Natural History said it was “considering its options” after discovering a private function booked to take place there would honour Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Sunday, April 14th 2019 - 08:21 UTC
Brazil's Lower House speaker and supporter of the pensions' reform, under police investigation

Brazilian police have accused Rodrigo Maia, Brazil’s powerful lower house speaker, and his father of receiving bribes totalling at least 1.4 million reais (US$ 361,869), a document on Friday showed. The federal police document was delivered to the Supreme Court, as part on an ongoing investigation into Maia.
Sunday, April 14th 2019 - 08:14 UTC
Chinese company interested in taking over Ford's Brazilian plant in Sao Paulo

China’s Beiqi Foton Motor Co Ltd is eyeing the acquisition of Ford Motor Co’s Brazilian plant in the industrial city of Sao Bernardo do Campo, newspaper Valor Economico reported on Friday.
Sunday, April 14th 2019 - 08:04 UTC
Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance launches collaboration network in Chile

A group of UK experts visited Santiago during March 2019 to inaugurate a fintech collaboration network with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latina America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC). This was an outcome of an intense agenda of activities carried out in Chile last October by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, (CCAF).
Saturday, April 13th 2019 - 08:39 UTC
“US will not quit the fight” for democracy in Venezuela, Pompeo states in Chile

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday defended sanctions on Venezuela and said the United States would not “quit the fight” in the socialist-run Latin American nation which is spiraling into deepening economic and political crisis.
Saturday, April 13th 2019 - 08:12 UTC
Searching for Admiral Graf von Spee’s great cruiser fleet sunk at the Falklands Battle

In 2014-2015, to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Falklands, Mensun Bound, a Falkland Islander himself, led an expedition to try to find Admiral Graff von Spee’s lost cruiser squadron in 1914, the whereabouts of which has become one the great mysteries of the maritime world. Now he is resuming the hunt. Mercopress began by asking how it all began.
Saturday, April 13th 2019 - 08:01 UTC
The former head of Venezuela's military intelligence has been arrested by Spanish police over US drug charges.

The US Justice Department, who originally unsealed the charges in 2014, have requested Hugo Carvajal's extradition. Mr Carvajal was a close ally of the country's late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, but in February denounced his successor President Nicolás Maduro.