Latin America

• Wednesday, June 20th 2012 - 06:33 UTC

  Wikileaks’ Assange holed in Ecuadorian embassy and asked for political asylum

  

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday walked into Ecuador's embassy in London and applied for political asylum in a sensational bid to avoid extradition to Sweden over alleged sex crimes.

• Wednesday, June 20th 2012 - 06:08 UTC

  Iranian president meets with Bolivia’s Morales reinforce cooperation deals

  

  Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stopped in Bolivia Tuesday en route to the Rio+20 summit in Brazil, to court support from another Latin American nation which has tense ties with the United States.

• Tuesday, June 19th 2012 - 23:36 UTC

  Peña Nieto comfortably ahead for July 1 Mexican presidential election

  

  Mexico's presidential front-runner Enrique Peña Nieto has maintained a wide lead over his rivals with less than two weeks remaining until the July 1 election, an opinion poll showed this week.

• Tuesday, June 19th 2012 - 23:06 UTC

  Chavez comfortably ahead of opposition candidate Capriles, show opinion polls

  

  Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has a 16-percentage-point lead over opposition candidate Henrique Capriles ahead of an election in October, a new opinion poll showed on Tuesday.

• Tuesday, June 19th 2012 - 06:59 UTC

  Brazil/Argentina agree G20 common position, but will wait to listen to Germany

  

  Brazil and Argentina agreed on Monday “to oppose any financial adjustment plan” and sponsor development and growth policies to face the world crisis, in the framework of the two-day G20 summit taking place in Mexico.

• Tuesday, June 19th 2012 - 06:55 UTC

  Chinese PM Wen Jibao to visit Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile

  

  Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is to attend the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio De Janeiro, and pay official visits to Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile from June 20 to 26, it was announced in Beijing the Foreign Ministry

• Tuesday, June 19th 2012 - 06:16 UTC

  Largest emerging-market nations will make additional contribution to IMF

  

  The world’s largest emerging-market nations will announce contributions to the IMF’s financial firewall at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Mexico, Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega announced.

• Tuesday, June 19th 2012 - 05:59 UTC

  Jewish centre asks for arrest of Iranian terrorist-suspects if they attend Rio+20

  

  The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has requested the Brazilian government “to arrest and extradite” any Iranian officials with pending arrest warrants from Interpol because of their links with a terrorist attack in Argentina, if they arrive in Brazil for the Rio+20 conference as members of the official delegation from Teheran.

• Tuesday, June 19th 2012 - 01:30 UTC

  PM Cameron accuses Argentina of colonialism and protectionism ahead of G20

  

  British Prime Minister David Cameron has fired a broadside at Argentina ahead of the opening of the G20 summit in Mexico, accusing the country of colonialism over the Falklands and protectionism in world trade.

• Monday, June 18th 2012 - 07:32 UTC

  Peru announces 28bn dollars in mining projects despite growing social unrest

  

  The Peruvian government has approved private mining projects worth 28 billion dollars out of 52 billion dollars of projects planned over the next five years, Peru's Energy and Mines Minister Jorge Merino said.