Mercosur

• Sunday, January 8th 2012 - 05:29 UTC

  Brazil celebrates having achieved 2011inflation target, but it’s highest since 2004

  

  Brazil's government just met its inflation target for 2011, which was a surprise victory forPresident Dilma Rousseff and for a central bank that struggled for most of the year with rising food and commodities prices. However it is the highest inflation since 2004.

• Sunday, January 8th 2012 - 05:25 UTC

  India targets 50bn dollars trade with Latam by 2014; Latam assessing ‘China euphoria’

  

  Latin America trade with India could go up to 50 billion dollars by 2014 on the back of projected high economic growth in both the regions, said R. Viswanathan, India's ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

• Sunday, January 8th 2012 - 05:22 UTC

  Chavez names Defence minister Army officer described by the US as a “drug kingpin”

  

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez named as Defence minister General Henry Rangel Silva, who the United States has described as a “drug kingpin” linked to cocaine smuggling from neighbouring Colombia.

• Sunday, January 8th 2012 - 05:20 UTC

  Two electronic companies increase investments in Tierra del Fuego

  

  Two companies involved in electronics announced investments of 450 million Argentine Pesos (over 100 million dollars) in Tierra del Fuego for the production of electrical appliances.

• Sunday, January 8th 2012 - 05:18 UTC

  Obama calls on US companies to ‘in-source’ jobs; unemployment falls to 8.5%

  

  President Barack Obama kicked off an effort to encourage US businesses to keep jobs at home instead of outsourcing them overseas, as he rolled out a new election-year theme aimed at courting middle-class voters.

• Sunday, January 8th 2012 - 05:14 UTC

  Spain opens tax evasion “hunting season” and targets 8 billion Euros

  

  Spain’s new Conservative Government announced this week a wide ranging plan against fiscal fraud and tax evasion by which it hopes to recoup over 8 billion Euros for treasury coffers in 2012 alone. And it has also announced it will be engaging countries which have ceased to be tax-havens in order to step up the Government’s efforts against tax evasion in Spain.

• Sunday, January 8th 2012 - 05:12 UTC

  Chilean artist illustrator and storyteller of Disney’s Donald Duck dies

  

  Chilean artist and storyteller Victor Arriagada died last week following a long struggle with leukaemia. He leaves behind a legacy of characters, stories and artwork which will continue to thrill readers for decades to come.

• Saturday, January 7th 2012 - 15:41 UTC

  Argentine president rests in Olivos residence; no cancerous cells detected

  

  Argentine President Cristina Fernandez was discharged from hospital midday Saturday three days after surgery and following on the announcement that “medical tests have ruled out the presence of cancerous cells in her thyroid gland”.

• Thursday, January 5th 2012 - 05:28 UTC

  Paraguay declares sanitary emergency because of outbreak of FMD

  

  Paraguay declared on Wednesday animal sanitary emergency in the district of San Pedro, 400 kilometres north of the capital Asuncion where this week an outbreak of foot and mouth disease was confirmed in a farm.

• Wednesday, January 4th 2012 - 17:33 UTC

  Brazil will continue to import beef from Paraguay except from the FMD area

  

  Brazil announced it will continue to receive different meats from the whole territory of landlocked Paraguay with the exception of the country of San Pedro were an outbreak of foot and mouth disease was confirmed this week, the second in four months