International

• Tuesday, January 22nd 2013 - 00:45 UTC

  Merkel loses Lower Saxony eight months ahead of the big election and despite her popularity

  

  In an extremely tight German state election, and eight months ahead of the national election, the Christian Democrats (CDU) lost Lower Saxony, which comes as a blow for Chancellor Angela Merkel who enjoys majority support in public opinion polls.

• Monday, January 21st 2013 - 13:51 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez ends her visit to Vietnam, “an icon for her generation”

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernandez ended on Sunday in Hanoi her visit to Vietnam the last leg of a week-long business and political trip that took her to the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and finally the land which she emphasized represented an icon for her generation.

• Monday, January 21st 2013 - 11:28 UTC

  Argentina’s wheat crop down to 10 million tons; 2011/12 planted area 25% less

  

  Argentina will produce 10.1 million tons of wheat this season, the agricultural ministry said, citing extreme weather as the reason for cutting back its previous estimate of 10.5 million tons. With almost all of the harvest already collected, Argentina is looking at a thin wheat harvest, compared with the 14.1 million tons collected in the 2011/12 crop year.

• Monday, January 21st 2013 - 11:28 UTC

  Transcripts show Federal Reserve underestimated looming 2007 crisis

  

  The US Federal Reserve may have underestimated the looming 2007 global financial crisis released transcripts from its meetings that year have shown. The documents suggested Fed Governor Ben Bernanke wanted to hold off from addressing rising panic in the markets.

• Sunday, January 20th 2013 - 22:20 UTC

  Uruguay opens historic diplomatic archives to Malvinas war veterans

  

  Uruguay will open on Monday 21 January its diplomacy archives to that Malvinas war veterans can consult classified information referred to the South Atlantic conflict when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in April 1982.

• Sunday, January 20th 2013 - 21:22 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez re-election back on the political agenda ahead of the mid term October election

  

  The possibility of a re-re-election of Argentine president Cristina Fernandez is back in the political agenda, this time spurred by a member of the Lower House with close contacts with trade unions and father of the General Manager of the now re-nationalized Argentine flag carrier Aerolineas Argentinas

• Sunday, January 20th 2013 - 19:40 UTC

  Obama begins his second mandate; the public ceremony and pomp on Monday

  

  Barack Obama has officially been sworn in for his second term as US president in a small ceremony at the White House. Although the US Constitution requires the oath of office to be taken by noon on 20 January, that falls on a Sunday so the public inauguration will take place on Monday.

• Saturday, January 19th 2013 - 03:29 UTC

  Santos could seek popular approval for any peace and political accord with FARC

  

  Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos opened the door to a popular vote on any peace accord negotiated and signed with FARC rebels, but rejected a guerrilla demand to change the constitution if a deal is clinched.

• Saturday, January 19th 2013 - 03:16 UTC

  Canada’s new plastic banknotes with the wrong maple leaf

  

  The Bank of Canada has barked up the wrong maple tree with its new plastic banknotes, using a foreign Norway maple leaf as the emblem on the notes instead of the sugar maple that the country has on its national flag, an eagle-eyed Canadian botanist says.

• Saturday, January 19th 2013 - 00:29 UTC

  Anywhere from 30 to 50% of world food production lost to waste, says engineers’ group

  

  The report “Global Food: Waste Not Want Not” by the UK’s Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) has found that 30-50%, or 1.2-2 billion tons, of produced food is wasted by poor storage, bad distribution and exacting quality standards in the developed world.