Politics

• Tuesday, March 16th 2010 - 05:13 UTC

  EC calls on Britain to further cut the budget deficit: “not ambitious enough”

  

  The European Commission will call on Britain to do more to cut the budget deficit, according to a draft document. The EU executive is also expected to say the UK's medium term plans are not ambitious enough. The report will see the light just weeks before a general election is expected to be announced.

• Tuesday, March 16th 2010 - 05:10 UTC

  Europe agrees to help Greece but loan guarantees have been ruled out

  

  Europe's finance ministers agreed Monday how to help Greece in its battle to control its finances. After a meeting in Brussels, they revealed few details, except that they had ruled out any loan guarantees.

• Tuesday, March 16th 2010 - 05:06 UTC

  Mercosur/Israel free trade agreement becomes effective April

  

  Brazil expects a new free trade agreement with Israel to swell bilateral trade to more than 3 billion US dollars within five years, officials said on Monday. Trade between Israel and Brazil slipped below 1 billion USD in 2009 from a peak of 1.6 billion USD in 2008 -- 1.2 billion USD of which were Israeli exports -- due to the global economic crisis.

• Tuesday, March 16th 2010 - 04:57 UTC

  British Airways announces strike contingency plan for 60% of its customers

  

  British Airways says 60% of its customers will be able to keep their travel plans during planned strikes by cabin crew. Industrial action is set to begin with a three-day walkout from Saturday March 20, followed by a four-day stoppage from Saturday March 27.

• Monday, March 15th 2010 - 21:58 UTC

  Lula da Silva refers to Ahmadinejad and Chavez as two “nutties”, says O’Globo

  

  Brazilian president Lula da Silva allegedly referred to Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as “nutty” leaders which must be kept under control through close links, reports the Brazilian newspaper O’Globo.

• Monday, March 15th 2010 - 21:54 UTC

  Israel discloses information on terrorist attack against embassy in Argentina

  

  In the week of the 18th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, the Israeli government claims to have identified the intellectual and material perpetrators of the bombing which left 29 dead, 242 wounded on March 17th, 1992.

• Monday, March 15th 2010 - 20:16 UTC

  Uruguay/Bolivia sign agreement to exchange natural gas for sea outlet

  

  Bolivia will gain access to Atlantic ports in Uruguay in exchange for a pledge of natural gas exports to Montevideo in an agreement signed in La Paz by presidents Evo Morales and José Mujica.

• Monday, March 15th 2010 - 20:07 UTC

  Controversy in UK over cuts in military training to save money

  

  A record 80 training exercises were cancelled last year By the UK Ministry of Defense while the number of British troops in Helmand reached 10,000.

• Monday, March 15th 2010 - 19:50 UTC

  Colombia’s former Defense minister consolidates as sucesor of Uribe

  

  Colombian presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos’s La U party is leading the vote count of congressional elections held Sunday, consolidating his position as frontrunner to succeed Alvaro Uribe.

• Saturday, March 13th 2010 - 02:55 UTC

  Cuban political prisoners’ controversy backfires on Lula da Silva

  

  One of the most influential Senators from Brazil’s ruling Workers Party remembered President Lula da Silva that world figures such as India’s Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King appealed to hunger strikes as part of their peaceful struggle for the rights of their peoples.