International

• Saturday, December 5th 2015 - 06:50 UTC

  Oil futures fall sharply after OPEC agrees to keep 'current actual production'

  

  Oil futures fell sharply Friday, with the U.S. benchmark settling below $40 a barrel after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to keep pumping crude at current production levels despite a global glut.

• Friday, December 4th 2015 - 07:49 UTC

  Uruguay's former football chief Bauza, only Conmebol member not indicted

  

  Of the ten presidents from South America's football confederation, Conmebol, during the period under investigation by the FBI, only two had not been indicted until Thursday: Uruguay's Sebastian Bauza and Ecuador's Luis Chriboga. However US Attorney General Loretta Lynch included Chriboga in the latest list of allegedly 16 indictments.

• Friday, December 4th 2015 - 07:29 UTC

  FIFA corruption: new round of arrests of South American football officials

  

  Sixteen more top football officials were charged in a dramatic widening of the FIFA corruption scandal on Thursday, as US prosecutors vowed to leave no stone unturned in their quest to root out graft. Several senior FIFA officials from the past or present were named in a 92-count US Justice Department indictment which came after a series of dawn raids at a luxury hotel in Zurich hosting FIFA officials.

• Friday, December 4th 2015 - 07:25 UTC

  Dragui's fresh Euro stimulus measures don't convince markets

  

  The European Central Bank announced on Thursday fresh stimulus measures in a bid to boost inflation and the Euro zone’s recovery but the market response reflected disappointment. Mario Dragui said the bank was extending the quantitative easing program by six months, March 2017, or beyond if necessary, but at the current rate of 60 billion Euros a month.

• Friday, December 4th 2015 - 05:55 UTC

  Mercosur waiting for EU proposal; summit to be held at Conmebol convention centre

  

  Mercosur is waiting for the European Union to decide when to begin the exchange of tariff-reduction proposals with the purpose of reaching an encompassing trade and cooperation agreement, despite France's objections to the move, said Rigoberto Gauto, Paraguay's deputy foreign minister. Paraguay currently holds the Mercosur chair and leads negotiations with Brussels.

• Friday, December 4th 2015 - 04:44 UTC

  UK embassy sponsors three workshops in Uruguay on science and innovation

  

  The British Embassy, the British Council and Uruguayan National Research and Innovation Agency (ANII) have announced the three workshops selected under the recent Researcher Links call for proposals, part of the Embassy’s cooperation funding for science and innovation in Uruguay.

• Thursday, December 3rd 2015 - 11:33 UTC

  Global advance of TB, a disease of poverty and inequality, warns world medical association

  

  Tuberculosis should be treated as a disease of poverty and inequality, the World Medical Association said on Wednesday. Against the background of the global growth of tuberculosis, the WMA is updating its training course for physicians to emphasize the relationship between poverty and TB.

• Thursday, December 3rd 2015 - 11:26 UTC

  Amnesty presses FIFA on Qatar's 'rampant migrant labor abuse'

  

  Five years to the day since Qatar secured 2022 World Cup hosting rights, Amnesty International says the Gulf nation has done little to “address rampant migrant labor abuse”. Qatar has made pledges for labor reforms and the 2022 World Cup committee has introduced a workers’ charter. But the kafala system of tied employment has yet to be overhauled to ease restrictions on workers’ rights.

• Thursday, December 3rd 2015 - 07:55 UTC

  Total contracts Maersk drillship to spud well offshore Uruguay next March

  

  Maersk Drilling has been awarded a contract for the drillship Maersk Venturer with oil major France's Total. The contract covers one exploration well (estimated duration 120 days) in block 14 offshore Uruguay.

• Thursday, December 3rd 2015 - 07:24 UTC

  Francis non papal message to Macri: 'a simple matter of protocol'

  

  How come the Argentine born pope Francis did not send a congratulation telegram, or formal message to president elect Mauricio Macri on his victory, has been an ongoing question. But Vatican sources pointed out there was no special reason for that attitude, but merely “a simple matter of protocol”.