Economy

• Monday, December 21st 2009 - 17:42 UTC

  Colombia beefs up Venezuelan border with airborne battalions

  

  The Colombian government has announced it is building a new military base on its border with Venezuela and has activated six new airborne battalions. Relations between the two nations are at a historic low with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez already telling his generals to prepare for war.
  He moved 15,000 more troops up to the border, accusing Colombia and its ally, the US, of planning an attack.

• Monday, December 21st 2009 - 17:32 UTC

  British MoD row over Ascension Islands reached the London press

  

  The military outpost of Ascension Island “vital to the protection of the Falkland Islands” is at the centre of a row over tax bills unpaid by the Ministry of Defence, according to an article on Sunday’s edition of the Daily Express.

• Monday, December 21st 2009 - 12:59 UTC

  Beijing has over 4 million cars registered (2 million in 2003)

  

  China’s capital Beijing registry has reached 4,001,426 vehicles and 5,679,000 drivers, according to a release from the municipal government. The number of vehicles and drivers jumped 497,000 and 536,000 respectively in the last twelve months.

• Sunday, December 20th 2009 - 09:09 UTC

  New York Times praises the quality of Uruguayan beef from grass-fed cattle

  

  The New York Times dedicated a long piece to the quality and rising pre-eminence of Uruguayan beef in world markets, contrary to what is happening in neighbouring Argentina, still considered “king of the best beef in the world”

• Saturday, December 19th 2009 - 12:13 UTC

  Argentina’s economy “technically in recession” seems to have bottomed out

  

  Argentina's economy shrank for a second straight quarter from July to September, but industrial output jumped in November as auto production surged, indicating a turn in the economy, data showed on Friday.

• Friday, December 18th 2009 - 12:23 UTC

  Argentina plans to sell 15 billion USD in debt instruments

  

  Argentina filed a shelf offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the sale of up to 15 billion US dollars in debt instruments in the United States, according to documents posted on the SEC’s website.

• Friday, December 18th 2009 - 11:53 UTC

  Fed chairman Bernanke’s reconfirmation is almost a fact

  

  Ben Bernanke's nomination to a second term as head of the US Federal Reserve has been approved by a Senate panel. Members of the Senate Banking Committee voted on Thursday 16 to seven to back Mr Bernanke as head of the central bank.

• Friday, December 18th 2009 - 08:08 UTC

  European Parliament approves 2010 budget: almost half for agriculture

  

  The European Parliament has approved a 122.9bn Euro EU budget for 2010 - nearly half of which is to go to agriculture and natural resources. It is a 6% increase on the 2009 budget, which was worth 116bn Euros.

• Thursday, December 17th 2009 - 05:56 UTC

  Fed confirms most special liquidity facilities to expire by February 2010

  

  The Federal Reserve has decided to keep US interest rates on hold at between 0% and 0.25%, --as had been widely expected--, and anticipated that most of the special liquidity facilities will expire on February 1, 2010.

• Wednesday, December 16th 2009 - 23:25 UTC

  UK record: one in five working age people economically inactive

  

  Youth unemployment in the United Kingdom has reached a record high as the jobless total nudged 2.5 million, the worst total since the mid-1990s. The number of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work was 952,000 in the three months to October, a quarterly rise of 6,000 and the highest figure since records began in 1992.