Politics

• Friday, May 15th 2009 - 11:21 UTC

  Colombia’s Uribe closer to the second “re-election of his ideas”

  

  Colombia's senate has delayed a vote on scheduling a referendum that could let President Alvaro Uribe seek a third term. Lawmakers had been expected to vote Wednesday but the body put off consideration of the measure until May 19 for lack of quorum.

• Friday, May 15th 2009 - 11:12 UTC

  Booing incident gets the sack for Spain’s state television sports editor

  

  Spain's state television sacked its head of sports coverage on Thursday, saying it was a mistake not to have shown a soccer crowd from Catalonia and the Basque Country booing the Spanish national anthem during the country's Copa del Rey final.

• Friday, May 15th 2009 - 09:23 UTC

  British MPs expenses scandal claims first scalps

  

  British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has suspended ex-minister Elliot Morley from the Parliamentary Labour Party and an aide to Tory leader David Cameron quit his post as the Westminster expenses scandal claimed its first scalps.

• Thursday, May 14th 2009 - 08:21 UTC

  Governance post-June 28 takes hold of Argentine electoral campaign

  

  Argentine mid term elections have given a nasty turn as more opposition candidates are calling for “an orderly transition” that ensures governance from the day after June 28 until the end of the current presidential mandate of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

• Thursday, May 14th 2009 - 07:55 UTC

  Married Catholic Priests call on Vatican for “optional celibacy”

  

  The Latinamerican Federation of Married Catholic Priests called on the Vatican to accept “optional celibacy” for members of the Church and acknowledge as something natural that clergy members can marry.

• Thursday, May 14th 2009 - 07:44 UTC

  British police accuse MPs of “Third World dictatorship” expenses

  

  United Kingdom frontline police officers have accused Members of Parliament of enjoying expenses that would not look out of place in a “Third World dictatorship”. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was hauled over the coals by members of the Police Federation of England and Wales.

• Thursday, May 14th 2009 - 03:42 UTC

  Shannon praises Valenzuela and lists agenda of pending issues

  

  Thomas Shannon Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs who is to be replaced by Arturo Valenzuela said on Wednesday the incoming official will face “difficult challenges” in the management of relations with Latinamerica.

• Thursday, May 14th 2009 - 03:33 UTC

  Chilean president invited to the White House June 23

  

  Chilean president Michelle Bachelet will be meeting with President Barak Obama at the White House next June 23, it was announced in Santiago. This will be the second meeting of the two leaders: the first was at the recent Summit of the Americas in Trinidad Tobago.

• Wednesday, May 13th 2009 - 15:58 UTC

  Continental shelf claim: Falklands replies to Argentina’s vehement reaction

  

  The Falkland Islands Government Director of Mineral Resources today responded calmly to the Argentine Foreign Affairs vehement reaction to the UK submission in respect of its extended continental shelf claim around the Falkland Islands.

• Wednesday, May 13th 2009 - 15:39 UTC

  Another Clinton hand joins Obama’s team as head of hemispheric affairs

  

  US President Barack Obama named Tuesday Arturo Valenzuela, a US-Chilean citizen and former member of President Bill Clinton’s administration as the new head of hemispheric affairs in the State Department reported the White House press office.