Mercosur

• Saturday, February 13th 2016 - 05:45 UTC

  Valcke banned for 12 years from FIFA for misconduct and destruction of evidence

  

  Two weeks before the presidential election, FIFA's top judge bans former secretary general Jerone Valcke for 12 years for misconduct relating to World Cup ticket sales, travel expenses and destruction of evidence.

• Saturday, February 13th 2016 - 04:08 UTC

  'Queen Mary 2' calls in Ushuaia after ten-year absence

  

  One of the world's largest and most iconic cruise vessels called at Ushuaia, extreme south of Argentina, on Thursday following an absence of over ten years. Given the size of the 'Queen Mary 2', she anchored in the bay and those passengers of the 2.600 on board who decided to land were brought ashore in tenders.

• Friday, February 12th 2016 - 18:47 UTC

  Falklands' (oil exploration) “has been a hugely successful campaign”, says Rockhopper

  

  Rockhopper Exploration which has a joint venture agreement with Premier Oil offshore the Falkland Islands, described the oil exploration campaign now terminated as a 'huge success' and underlines the postponement of the Chatham well drilling will have no impact on the Field Development Plan for the Sea Lion oil discovery development.

• Friday, February 12th 2016 - 18:14 UTC

  Falklands' exploratory campaign ended, following termination of ocean rig contract

  

  The Falkland Islands government and Premier Oil have announced on Friday the ocean rig 'Eirik Raude' contract termination, which in practical terms puts an end to the current exploratory campaign and the scheduled drilling of the Chatham well. Nevertheless both sides underlined the success of the now terminated campaign with the oil discoveries at the Zebedee and Isobel Deep prospects in the North Falkland basin and look forward to continue working in the near future.

• Friday, February 12th 2016 - 07:02 UTC

  Majority of Mercosur teen-agers are 'low performers' in maths, science and reading

  

  Bad news for Mercosur aspirations. Low standards at schools in most of South America are a common problem according to the latest report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, which has the region's students among the last fifteen in a list of 64 countries.

• Wednesday, February 10th 2016 - 07:24 UTC

  Argentina still has uphill battle with holdouts: a stay of pari-passu is next round

  

  While investors cheered progress on last week's arduous negotiations in New York between Argentine government officials and litigant investors, the administration of president Mauricio Macri still faces an uphill battle as it works to bring other holdouts on board.

• Wednesday, February 10th 2016 - 07:08 UTC

  London's position on Falklands 'unchanged', says UK ambassador in Spain

  

  The United Kingdom will not change current policy on the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, according to the UK Ambassador to Spain Simon J. Manley, confirming London's stance on the Islands sovereignty.

• Wednesday, February 10th 2016 - 02:33 UTC

  Falklands: Back to the future, why the 'new approach' from Argentina is completely missing the point

  

  By the Honourable Mike Summers, OBE (*) - Over the weekend of the 6th and 7th February, the press in Argentina reported that the Government of Argentina (GoA) was going to change its approach to its treatment of the Falkland Islands, its relationship with the United Kingdom and how it intends to “resolve the Falklands question”

• Saturday, February 6th 2016 - 07:57 UTC

  Pollack statement: “pleased to report that enormous progress has been made”

  

  Daniel A. Pollack, Special Master presiding over settlement negotiations between the Republic of Argentina and its “holdout” Bondholders issued the following statement today (Friday, Jan 5):

• Saturday, February 6th 2016 - 07:00 UTC

  Argentina close to a full agreement with holdouts: US$ 6.5bn offer to end the litigation

  

  Argentina offered a $6.5 billion cash payment to creditors suing the country over defaulted bonds on Friday, seeking to end an exhausting 14-year legal battle, “the sovereign debt trial of the century”, that transformed the country into a financial markets pariah. Two out of six leading bondholders have already accepted the offer, the U.S. court-appointed mediator said, hailing the proposal by Argentina's new, business-friendly government as an “historic breakthrough”.