Politics

• Thursday, July 28th 2011 - 20:03 UTC

  EU population reached 502.5 million; Ireland, UK with highest birth rates

  

  The population of the European Union reached 502.5 million on 1 January 2011 according to data provided by the statistical office of the European Union. This is one million and a half more than a year ago.

• Thursday, July 28th 2011 - 11:42 UTC

  Argentina-Brazil summit in Brasilia to discuss trade and political coordination

  

  Brazilian Foreign Affairs minister Antonio Patriota said that trade talks is one of several points in the bilateral agenda, ‘but not the most important’, next Friday when Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner visits her Brazilian peer Dilma Rousseff.

• Thursday, July 28th 2011 - 11:32 UTC

  Venezuela remains committed to compensate oil companies, says minister

  

  Venezuela said it remains committed to compensating Exxon-Mobil and Conoco-Phillips for nationalized oil assets, as long as the amount is reasonable and either settle by mutual agreement or set by the World Bank’s arbitration panel.

• Thursday, July 28th 2011 - 11:14 UTC

  Humala takes office in Peru with a balancing act on promises and the cabinet

  

  Former nationalist military officer Ollanta Humala will take office next Thursday as the next president of Peru, one of the fastest growing economies in the world but with almost half the population living in poverty.

• Thursday, July 28th 2011 - 11:04 UTC

  Peruvian president counts with the support of 68 out of 130 benches in Congress

  

  A working alliance of 68 members in the one-chamber Congress of 130 benches will be supporting the government of Peruvian president-elect Ollanta Humala who is to be sworn in on Thursday 28 July.

• Thursday, July 28th 2011 - 11:00 UTC

  All South American presidents, except Chavez and Lugo, present in Lima

  

  All South American presidents with the exception of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez under chemotherapy treatment, and Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo, who cancelled at last moment following medical instructions, will be present at Thursday swearing in ceremony of Peruvian president-elect Ollanta Humala.

• Thursday, July 28th 2011 - 06:27 UTC

  China, Japan, UK, oil countries and Brazil, top holders of US Treasury bonds

  

  While US politicians remain divided on how to raise the government's ability to borrow, with a key deadline less than a week away, how is the current 14.29 trillion dollars in federal debt split, according to stats from the Treasury Department?

• Thursday, July 28th 2011 - 06:22 UTC

  The US government debt ceiling: what did Eisenhower do back in 1953?

  

  Should the US follow the example of President Dwight Eisenhower back in 1953, asks Alex J Pollok, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and Anne Canfield president of Canfield & Associates, Washington, D.C. in an article published in The American Journal of the AEI.

• Thursday, July 28th 2011 - 06:19 UTC

  Lower House to vote on (doomed) Republican proposal to raise US debt ceiling

  

  US House of Representatives speaker John Boehner is urging Republicans to back his plan to cut the US budget and raise the debt limit. Boehner's appeal to conservative House Republicans came despite a White House veto threat and rejection from Democratic leaders in the Senate.

• Thursday, July 28th 2011 - 06:15 UTC

  UK to cooperate with Bolivia in the fight against drug trafficking

  

  The British government has announced a new co-operation deal with Bolivia in the fight against drug trafficking. During a two-day visit to Bolivia, Britain's Minister for Latin America, Jeremy Browne, said the Serious Organised Crime Agency in London will join forces with the counter-narcotics police in La Paz.