Brazil's Environment Institute ordered US oil giant Chevron to pay another fine related to the early November oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.
China ratified support for Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falkland Islands. The message was delivered last week by Chinese President Hu Jintao's special envoy Jiang Shusheng and vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and is part of the reciprocal policy in support of Taiwan as a province of China.
In a piece published last week in London daily The Guardian, and referred to the recent Mercosur support for Argentina in the Falkland Islands dispute, Richard Gott argues that a new scenario has emerged with South America growing in strength, increasingly united and no longer looking to Europe for support and advice which means a different framework for the Falkland Islands s sovereignty dispute.
Uruguayan Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro spoke Friday on the phone with Foreign secretary William Hague for the first time since the Falklands/Malvinas’ flagged vessels controversy, but both sides apparently could only agree that the situation remains stalled according to brief statements
Mercosur latest decision to bar all Falkland Islands flagged vessels from entering its ports is “more symbolic” than anything else because a change of flag is enough, according to Uruguay’s Ports Authority, ANP President Alberto Díaz.
The Falkland Islands weekly Penguin News reports in its last edition that two Argentine aircraft carrying fourteen passengers for a cruise ship docked in Stanley landed last Saturday in the Islands Mount Pleasant Airport.
By John Fowler for Penguin News, Stanley, Falkland Islands - My first contact with Latin America came in 1971, when my wife and I spent four days in Montevideo while waiting for a ship to carry us to the Falkland Islands. We received such amazing hospitality and kindness from the Uruguayans we met then, that this small, but perfectly-formed country has had a place in my heart ever since.
One day after the summit in Montevideo, Uruguay criticized the functioning of Mercosur, particularly the lack of cooperation, trade barriers and impediments and delays to essential infrastructure works for the group.
In an Opinion piece, “Time to talk about the Falklands”, The Independent suggests the time might have come to defuse the situation in the South Atlantic and take up last year’s offer from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to broker between Britain and Argentina.
“We will always maintain our commitment to you on any question of sovereignty because your right to self-determination is the cornerstone of our policy”, said British Prime Minister David Cameron in his Christmas message to the Falkland Islands.