Politics

• Friday, March 13th 2015 - 14:35 UTC

  Iceland drops EU membership request; it had suspended the bid in 2013

  

  The government of Iceland has announced it is no longer seeking EU membership for the North Atlantic state. Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson said he had already informed current EU president Latvia and the European Commission about the cabinet's move.

• Friday, March 13th 2015 - 12:03 UTC

  Brazil's Levy says austerity measures are more important than a weak currency

  

  Brazil's economic growth depends more on the approval of austerity measures needed to rebuild investor confidence than on a weaker currency, Finance Minister Joaquim Levy told O Globo newspaper.

• Friday, March 13th 2015 - 11:53 UTC

  Brazil's economic difficulties are cyclical argues President Rousseff

  

  President Dilma Rousseff said here Thursday that Brazil's economic woes are cyclical in nature that the austerity measures her administration has adopted to rectify the situation will begin to bear fruit late this year.

• Friday, March 13th 2015 - 11:38 UTC

  Uruguay looks to Paraguay in support of a more open and dynamic Mercosur

  

  Fresh from an incident with Venezuela which delayed and displaced a Unasur meeting, the Uruguayan government is looking for closer relations with the conservative administration of Paraguay, putting the emphasis on regional integration but also in making Mercosur a more open and dynamic trade and cooperation block.

• Friday, March 13th 2015 - 11:28 UTC

  Brazil central bank admits interest policy has not been effective in fighting inflation

  

  Brazil's Central Bank appears likely to continue raising interest rates in the short-term, saying in its most recent meeting that its inflation-fighting effort in recent months has been insufficiently effective. The view was reflected in the minutes, published on Thursday, of its monetary policy committee's March 4 meeting, when the bank raised its benchmark Selic interest rate by 50 basis points to 12.75%.

• Friday, March 13th 2015 - 11:18 UTC

  Griesa blocks Citigroup from paying interest on Argentine bonds; group will appeal

  

  A United States federal judge on Thursday said Citigroup Inc cannot process interest payments by Argentina on some bonds issued under that country's law. U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in Manhattan said letting Citigroup process the payments on so-called dollar-denominated exchange bonds would violate a requirement that Argentina treat bondholders equally.

• Friday, March 13th 2015 - 11:02 UTC

  Argentine Judge elected by peers head of the International Criminal Court

  

  An Argentine has been elected by her peers to lead the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Judges of the ICC, sitting in a plenary session, elected Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi as president of the court for a three-year term with immediate effect, the organization said in a news release.

• Friday, March 13th 2015 - 10:51 UTC

  New York Times warns Obama's strategy towards Venezuela could be failing

  

  In an editorial piece, “A failing relationship with Venezuela”, The New York Times expressed doubts about the latest measures imposed by the Obama administration on seven top officials from the Venezuelan government and goes even further questioning whether they will not end actually reinforcing President Nicolas Maduro position.

• Thursday, March 12th 2015 - 09:20 UTC

  HMS Dragon calls at Cape Town's naval base for mid-deployment break

  

  There is a permanent reminder of the Royal Navy's HMS Dragon’s first visit to South Africa as the destroyer upheld a 90-year-old tradition. A large painting of the ship’s badge, featuring her namesake mythical beast, adorns the wall of the cavernous dry dock where the Portsmouth-based warship spent her mid-deployment break, receiving some TLC after a four-month battering from the Pacific and Atlantic.

• Thursday, March 12th 2015 - 01:11 UTC

  Bank of England contrary to further cut interest rates to combat low inflation

  

  Bank of England governor Mark Carney said it would be “extremely foolish” for the Bank of England to cut interest rates to try to combat low inflation. He reiterated comments made in February that the drop in prices was temporary and largely caused by the sharp fall in oil prices.