Politics

• Wednesday, February 27th 2013 - 06:53 UTC

  Argentina/Iran accord could just make it in Wednesday’s vote in the Lower House

  

  The bilateral memorandum of understanding, MOU, between Argentina and Iran to investigate the 1994 AMIA bombing was cleared for debate by the Lower House committees on Tuesday and will be discussed on Wednesday at the floor. Foreign Minister Hector Timerman clashed with opposition lawmakers during his briefing over the case.

• Wednesday, February 27th 2013 - 05:18 UTC

  OAS assembly in Guatemala will discuss “alternative strategies for combating drugs”

  

  In an advance of the coming 43rd OAS General Assembly to be held in Antigua, Guatemala next June the country’s Foreign Affairs minister Luis Fernando Carrera Castro presented before the OAS Permanent Council an issue that is gaining support in the continent, “Alternative Strategies for Combating Drugs”.

• Wednesday, February 27th 2013 - 05:10 UTC

  Jack Lew closer to becoming US Treasury Secretary; Senate votes Hagel for the Pentagon

  

  Jack Lew won the Senate Finance Committee’s approval to become US Treasury secretary and a full vote in the upper house confirmed Chuck Hagel as the next US defense secretary. The Senate approved the nomination Tuesday in a vote of 58 to 41.

• Wednesday, February 27th 2013 - 01:14 UTC

  Italy fears knock world stock markets; US recovers on Bernanke’ defence of stimuli

  

  World stock markets and southern European government bonds sank on Tuesday on fears that political stalemate in Italy would leave its economic reforms in tatters and reignite the Euro zone's broader debt crisis.

• Tuesday, February 26th 2013 - 10:46 UTC

  Brazil: current account deficit outpacing FDI expected to continue for two months

  

  Brazil’s current account deficit surged to a record high in January, outpacing foreign direct investment for the third straight month because of the widening trade gap according to central bank data.

• Tuesday, February 26th 2013 - 09:27 UTC

  Tolerance of bribery and violation of the law in the Americas

  

  Where disregarding the law is normal rather than an aberration, citizens are more likely to see paying a bribe as in their best interest and where obeying the law is the norm and disobeying it constitutes deviant behaviour, citizens are more likely to reject bribery, is one of the foundations for understanding the phenomenon, according to the Americas Barometer Insights in one of its latest papers titled, “tolerance of bribery and violation of the law”.

• Tuesday, February 26th 2013 - 08:12 UTC

  Italy rejects EU sponsored austerity measures leaves country in political deadlock

  

  Italy faced political deadlock on Tuesday after a stunning election that saw the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo become the strongest party in the country and left no political group with a clear majority in parliament. The protest vote is also a clear signal of the failure of the EU-German sponsored austerity measures which were implemented by the government of the non-elected technocrat government of Mario Monti.

• Tuesday, February 26th 2013 - 00:59 UTC

  Argentine born MEP shocks UK politics by abandoning independents and joining the Tories

  

  Argentine born Marta Andreasen a UK south east region MEP (Member of the European Parliament) for the UK Independent Party has said she is leaving the party to join the Conservatives.

• Tuesday, February 26th 2013 - 00:10 UTC

  Argentina accused UK of sending submarines with nuclear weapons capacity to the Falklands

  

  Argentina accused the UK of displacement of submarines with nuclear weapons capacity in the Falkland Islands, violating international treaties that established the South Atlantic zone as free of nuclear arms. The claim was made on Monday at the United Nations Disarmament Conference in Geneva.

• Monday, February 25th 2013 - 22:16 UTC

  South Korea has first female president: pledges ‘trust-politik’ with Pyongyang

  

  Park Geun-hye made history Monday by becoming South Korea's first female president, pledging to secure South Korea against the threat of an increasingly hostile North Korea at the same time as mending bridges with Pyongyang.