Politics

• Saturday, December 31st 2016 - 15:20 UTC

  End of controversy? Venezuela says it has “transferred” the Mercosur chair to Argentina

  

  Venezuela announced on Friday that it had transferred the Mercosur pro tempore chair to Argentina, having ended its “legitimate tenure” of the post, although the rest of the block's members had already complied with the formalities two weeks ago when they also decided to suspend the regime of president Nicolas Maduro.

• Saturday, December 31st 2016 - 06:38 UTC

  Death of Greek ambassador to Brazil seemingly a crime of passion arranged by his wife

  

  Greece's ambassador to Brazil, Kyriakos Amiridis, was assassinated in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, apparently in a “crime of passion” planned by his wife - of Brazilian origin - and her lover, a military policeman who is suspected of having actually committed the murder, police said this Friday.

• Friday, December 30th 2016 - 17:40 UTC

  An attempt to bypass Lords could turn into fresh legal challenge for Brexit

  

  A fresh legal challenge to triggering Brexit could be launched unless UK Prime Minister Theresa May allows the House of Lords to vote on the issue. Businesswoman Gina Miller, who helped bring the action which saw the High Court insist the Commons must vote on invoking Article 50, has said the upper House of Parliament also needs a “proper debate”.

• Friday, December 30th 2016 - 17:36 UTC

  The 100 Bolivar notes refuse to die: Maduro extends their use until January 20

  

  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says his government will extend the use of 100-bolivar notes to January 20, after a plan to withdraw those bills from the economy sparked protests across the country and widespread looting.

• Friday, December 30th 2016 - 17:18 UTC

  Brazil's unemployment rate reaches a record high of 11.9%: this means 12.1m out of a job

  

  Brazil's unemployment rate from September to November reached a record high of 11.9%, the country's statistics agency IBGE said. This new rate is a significant year-on-year hike over the same period in 2015, when it stood at 9%.

• Friday, December 30th 2016 - 17:04 UTC

  Odebrecht bribes' return ratio: for each million paid out it earned US$ 4m in contracts

  

  According to the Swiss Public Prosecutor, Odebrecht regularly paid Brazilian politicians and political parties from secret accounts in Geneva. For every US$1 million that the company paid out to politicians, it earned back US$4 million in contracts.

• Friday, December 30th 2016 - 05:00 UTC

  Prosecutor Nisman's filing to be reopened and investigated, Criminal Court rules

  

  The Federal Criminal Court of Appeals Thursday ordered the reopening of the case filed by former AMIA Special Prosecutor Alberto Nisman four days before he was found dead against then Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for the alleged cover-up of the Iranian nationals suspected of being behind the AMIA bombing in July, 1994.

• Friday, December 30th 2016 - 04:16 UTC

  Venezuela second on world murder ranking with 28,479 yearly killings, says NGO

  

  The new figures leave President Nicolas Maduro's country behind only El Salvador. Honduras comes in third but way behind the front runners. The Venezuelan Observatory on Violence (OVV) NGO announced that 28,479 killings over the course of the year is tantamount to 91.8 such deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

• Friday, December 30th 2016 - 03:48 UTC

  Ceasefire between Syria and rebels effective since midnight, but gunshots already reported

  

  A ceasefire between Syria's government and rebel forces started at midnight on Friday after nearly six years of civil war. The agreement, brokered by Russia and Turkey which back opposing sides in the conflict, got off to a dubious start as clashes had already been reported less than two hours after the truce's beginning.

• Thursday, December 29th 2016 - 22:51 UTC

  Obama's gov't expels 35 Russian diplomats - Moscow to take reciprocal steps

  

  The government of the United States Thursday expelled 35 Russian diplomats from Washington and San Francisco, US Department of State said in an official statement. Meanwhile, lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov, who is Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council's (Parliamantary Upper House) warned that “reciprocal steps will be made with regards to the U.S. embassy in Moscow and, quite possibly, the consulates will be cut down in size as well.” In any case, it is believed that this decision “will destroy diplomatic relations” between the two countries, as one Kremlin source put it.