International

• Friday, August 15th 2014 - 06:34 UTC

  Mujica, Latin America's most original leader according to The Economist

  

  Under the heading of “The sage of Montevideo”, The Economist visited the Uruguayan president at his farmhouse in the outskirts of Montevideo where they had a long chat.

• Friday, August 15th 2014 - 02:21 UTC

  Last minute decision saved Marina Silva from travelling with Campos

  

  Environmental activist and politician Marina Silva could have been on the plane that crashed on Wednesday and killed presidential candidate Eduardo Campos and six other occupants.

• Friday, August 15th 2014 - 02:18 UTC

  WHO downplays panic: air travel is low-risk for Ebola transmission

  

  The World Health Organization reiterated its position that the risk of transmission of Ebola virus disease during air travel remains low. “Unlike infections such as influenza or tuberculosis, Ebola is not airborne,” says Dr Isabelle Nuttall, Director of WHO Global Capacity Alert and Response. “It can only be transmitted by direct contact with the body fluids of a person who is sick with the disease.”

• Friday, August 15th 2014 - 02:15 UTC

  Unasur Montevideo summit planned for next week, suspended until October

  

  A planned presidential summit between the heads of state of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) has been suspended due to scheduling conflicts amongst member countries, according to the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry.

• Thursday, August 14th 2014 - 14:48 UTC

  Glasgow shipyard awarded contract for Royal Navy's offshore patrol vessels

  

  The offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), which will be used by the Royal Navy to undertake various tasks in support of UK interests both at home and abroad, will be built at BAE Systems’ shipyards in Glasgow.

• Wednesday, August 13th 2014 - 22:12 UTC

  Galicia closes a third of mussel polygons because of resurgent bio-toxic red tide

  

  The Xunta of Galicia in the northwest of Spain banned the extraction of mussels in 18 of the 55 floating nurseries of the autonomous region, that is to say, in 32% of the total capacity because of the presence of lipophilic biotoxin.

• Wednesday, August 13th 2014 - 07:09 UTC

  Brazil admits EU/Mercosur deal stalled because of European concerns about agriculture

  

  Brazil's agricultural competitiveness is a concern to countries and trade blocks negotiating agreements with Brazil, according to ambassador Paulo Estivallet de Mesquita, head of the Economics Department of the country's Ministry of Foreign Relations (MRE).

• Wednesday, August 13th 2014 - 06:41 UTC

  Philip Morris prepared to sue the UK over plain packaging of cigarettes

  

  Philip Morris International, the world's largest tobacco company, is prepared to sue the British government should it implement a law requiring plain packaging of cigarettes, a document showed.

• Wednesday, August 13th 2014 - 06:29 UTC

  First European Ebola infected dies; WHO approves unproven drugs for people at risk

  

  Spanish priest Miguel Pajares, 75, the first European infected by a strain of Ebola that has killed more than 1,000 people in West Africa, has died in hospital in Madrid, a spokeswoman for the city's health authorities said.

• Wednesday, August 13th 2014 - 06:23 UTC

  Spain celebrates as 'excellent' the latest EC fisheries TACs and quotas awarded

  

  The head of the Ministry of Food and Environment (Magrama), Miguel Arias Cañete, highlighted the ”excellent results achieved by Spain in negotiating total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 2014.”