Politics

Wednesday, December 17th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Iraq reporter who threw shoes at Bush, becomes instant hero

Thousands of Iraqis have demanded the release of a local TV reporter who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush at a Baghdad news conference. Crowds gathered in Baghdad's Sadr City district, calling for “hero” Muntadar al-Zaidi to be freed from custody.
Wednesday, December 17th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Cuba formally joins Rio Group of Latin American countries

Cuba on Tuesday was formally accepted as a member of the Rio Group of Latin American nations, handing the communist island a symbolic victory over US efforts to bar it from regional organizations.
Wednesday, December 17th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Obama named Time's 'Person of the Year' 2008”

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama was named “Person of the Year” by Time magazine, which said he “suspended our politics, shattered decades of conventional wisdom and overcame centuries of the social pecking order.”
Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Redeployment of HMS Northumberland “no cause of alarm”

The Commander British Forces South Atlantic, Air Commodore Gordon Moulds, was quick to respond to suggestions in the British press that the Falkland Islands would be left undefended by the decision to divert the frigate HMS Northumberland to a European Union counter- piracy mission off the coast of East Africa.
Tuesday, December 16th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Kirchner government admits Botnia plant “does not pollute”

The administration of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner openly supported the provincial governor who declared that a pulp mill on the Uruguayan side of a jointly managed water course, --and at the heart of a bitter dispute between the neighbouring countries--, “does not contaminate”.
Monday, December 15th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
UK retired military claim further defence budget cuts ahead

Two of Britain's former heads of the military have accused the Government of failing the Armed Forces following a cash-saving review of the defence budget.
Monday, December 15th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Uruguay's dispute with Kirchners becomes regional

Uruguay is considering abandoning the Union of South American Nations, UNASUR in the event Argentina manages to modify the mechanism for the nomination to the chair of the organization, thus imposing its candidate former president Nestor Kirchner, which Uruguay rejects point blank.
Monday, December 15th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Light at the end of corridor for Botnia pickets conflict

A political ally of Argentina's president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner admitted over the weekend that the Botnia pulp mill in Uruguay, and at the heart of ongoing dispute between the neighbouring countries, does not contaminate and called for the liberation of the bridges currently blocked by pickets.
Monday, December 15th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Uruguay ex-guerrilla leader nominated presidential candidate

Uruguay's former guerrilla leader and currently Senator Jose Mujica was chosen by an overwhelming majority as the ruling coalition's presidential candidate for next year's elections, but he will first have to face another challenge from other hopefuls in June.
Monday, December 15th 2008 - 20:00 UTC
Botnia Pulp and Fiction: Finnish “mea culpa”

Jussi Pakkasvirta, an expert on the political history of Latin America from Helsinki University, has recently published a wide-ranging study of attitudes towards the Finnish pulp and paper industry's controversial moves into South America.