International

Sunday, April 15th 2012 - 15:59 UTC
US security personnel prostitution scandal eclipses much of the Summit of the Americas

A prostitution scandal involving US security personnel in Colombia and an unprecedented regional push to end the isolation of Cuba threatened to eclipse President Barack Obama's charm offensive to Latin America.
Sunday, April 15th 2012 - 05:31 UTC
Spain feels conflict with Argentina over YPF “seems to be getting back on course”

In the last 48 hours “things seem to be getting back on course” said on Saturday Spain’s Minister of Industry Jose Manuel Soria in reference to the ongoing conflict with the Argentine government over the possible take over of YPF, the Argentine affiliate of Spain’s Repsol.
Saturday, April 14th 2012 - 06:48 UTC
YPF dispute: Argentina runs the risk of becoming an ‘international pariah” warns Spain

Spanish officials warned Argentina on Friday that the country risks becoming “an international pariah” if it follows through on its threats to take control of Spanish-owned energy company Repsol's majority stake in its YPF unit.
Saturday, April 14th 2012 - 06:38 UTC
UK team to survey wreck of RFA tanker sunk by WWII German U-boat in St Helena

UK Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) team is heading to the South Atlantic island of St Helena to survey the wreck of a tanker sunk by a German U-boat in World War Two.
Saturday, April 14th 2012 - 06:32 UTC
“Argentina: shame on you”; Editorial from Canada’s Globe and Mail

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has said it is “absurd” for the British government, which has enjoyed sovereignty over the Falkland Islands for 180 years, to maintain its claim from an ocean away “when these Islands are part of our maritime platform.” Applying the logic of Ms. Kirchner, Canada should be stoking international tensions in an effort to annex Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. And perhaps Greenland.
Saturday, April 14th 2012 - 06:17 UTC
Ocampo drops out from World Bank bid; gives full support to Nigerian candidate

Former Colombian finance minister Jose Antonio Ocampo ended his bid to become World Bank president on Friday, leaving two candidates in an unprecedented challenge to US control of the global development institution.
Friday, April 13th 2012 - 07:30 UTC
Obama will not yield on drugs decriminalization and Cuba policies

US President Barack Obama arrives Friday night in Colombia for the sixth Summit of the Americas where he is expected to hang tough on Washington's anti-narcotics and Cuba policies, positions ever-more unpopular in a region drifting away from US dominance.
Friday, April 13th 2012 - 01:14 UTC
FAO Food price index remained virtually unchanged in March

The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 216 points in March 2012, virtually unchanged from 215 points in February. Among the various commodity groups, only oils prices showed strength, compensating for falling dairy quotations, while the indices of cereals, sugar and meat prices were largely unchanged from February’s level
Friday, April 13th 2012 - 00:53 UTC
The remarkable robust 1945 line and the Falkland Islands dispute

By Gwynne Dyer - International human rights campaigner and occasional actor Sean Penn, whose well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize continues to be delayed for mysterious reasons, was the first famous foreigner to lend his support to the cause. “The world today is not going to tolerate any ludicrous and archaic commitment to colonialist ideology,” he told Cristina Kirchner, the president of Argentina. He was speaking, of course, of the Falkland Islands.
Thursday, April 12th 2012 - 17:48 UTC
World trade growth will slow for second year in 2012, anticipates WTO

World trade growth will slow for a second year to 3.7% in 2012 but “severe” downside risks could drive it further below the 20-year average of 5.4%, the World Trade Organization forecast on Thursday.