International

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 07:31 UTC

  Astori tells Spanish businesses “Uruguay, an attractive and safe” country for investors

  

  Vice president Danilo Astori currently on a business trip to Spain described Uruguay as an “attractive and safe” country to invest given its macroeconomic solidness, strength of its institutions and stimuli for investors, both domestic and from overseas.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 07:13 UTC

  EU parliament deplores YPF seizure; calls for an end to Argentina trade preferences

  

  The European parliament ‘deplored’ the Argentine government decision to expropriate a majority control in the YPF hydrocarbons corporation - which is owned by Spanish energy company Repsol- and called for the suspension of Argentina's tariff concessions under Europe's so-called generalised system of preferences (GSP). In a resolution, the House also urges Argentina to ”return to the path of dialogue and negotiation”.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 07:07 UTC

  Emerging powers committed to IMF but insist on less European predominance

  

  Major emerging powers stood ready on Friday to pledge money to bolster the International Monetary Fund's crisis-fighting war chest, though Brazil was holding out for promises that their voting power at the global lender would increase.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 04:14 UTC

  In France it’s Hollande or Sarkozy, but eyes are set on hard left/right votes

  

  Socialist presidential frontrunner Francois Hollande appealed to French voters to throw out conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and shun the far right in a final push for working-class votes before Sunday's first round of the election.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 04:03 UTC

  Argentina minimizes impact of Spain’s first retaliatory measures

  

  Argentine President Cristina Fernández minimized Spain’s decision to reduce the bio-diesel imports as a retaliation over the expropriation of YPF and called for “calm” after assuring that Argentina “is in condition to absorb” that production in the domestic market.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 03:56 UTC

  IMF says YPF dispute is a “bilateral affair” and decision of “a sovereign nation”

  

  Argentina managed a first point in the diplomatic dispute with Spain over the nationalization of YPF when the IMF decided to call the conflict a “bilateral affair” and “a decision of a sovereign nation”.

• Saturday, April 21st 2012 - 03:51 UTC

  Brazil will continue to intervene in support of industry and depressing its currency

  

  Brazilian Finance minister Guido Mantega said on Friday that IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde makes a mistake in recommending emerging countries not to intervene in the money exchange markets to counter the strong devaluation of currencies from the rich countries.

• Friday, April 20th 2012 - 21:51 UTC

  Barcelona vs Real Madrid: a derby with 1.5bn dollars on the field

  

  Saturday’s derby between Spain’s top teams Barcelona and Real Madrid is more than a soccer match, not only because it will most probably decide who is the next champ of La Liga but also because the field will see a display of 1.474 billion dollars in players.

• Friday, April 20th 2012 - 21:45 UTC

  Two English, two Spanish and one German in the billion dollars plus clubs league

  

  The piles of cash handed out by Europe’s top tournaments continue to drive team values higher for the best teams on the pitch, according to the latest report from Forbes.

• Friday, April 20th 2012 - 19:20 UTC

  New FMD strain in Egypt; 100.000 cattle infected, no vaccine for SAT2

  

  A new strain of Foot and Mouth Disease, known as SAT2, has broken out in Egypt and is threatening to spread to other areas of northern Africa and the Middle East.