Politics

• Tuesday, December 13th 2016 - 10:45 UTC

  Cuba, Europe normalize relations after 20 years

  

  Cuba and the Eurpean Union Monday signed in Brussels their first cooperation agreement, which will be from now on the legal basis of the link between the island and the 28 EU countries.

• Tuesday, December 13th 2016 - 10:32 UTC

  Argentina ready to take Mercosur chair: priority is the trade accord with Europe

  

  Argentina's priority as chair of Mercosur which it will officially take over this week will be to advance negotiations with the European Union for a wide ranging trade agreement which will not include Venezuela, anticipated foreign minister Susana Malcorra .

• Tuesday, December 13th 2016 - 10:23 UTC

  Chaos in Venezuela: bills and coins pulled out of circulation to combat hyperinflation

  

  Venezuelans hastily dumped the country's 100-bolivar bill, the largest denomination, on Monday after the government said it would be pulled from circulation as the crisis-racked nation suffers what is believed to be the world's highest inflation. Populist president Nicolas Maduro said the withdrawal of the bill — worth just 2 U.S. cents on the black market — was needed to reduce contraband of the banknotes on the Venezuela-Colombia border.

• Tuesday, December 13th 2016 - 08:49 UTC

  First loan for an Andes tunnel to connect Argentina with Chile as part of Mercosur road net

  

  The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a US$40 million loan that will allow for bidding to begin for the Agua Negra tunnel, which will connect San Juan province in Argentina with that of Coquimbo in Chile. The tunnel is key to improving trade integration between the two countries and the rest of Mercosur through a new corridor that will connect the Atlantic and the Pacific from Porto Alegre, Brazil, west to Coquimbo, Chile.

• Tuesday, December 13th 2016 - 07:51 UTC

  Another Goldman Sachs/Wall Street top official named to Trump's economic team

  

  Gary Cohn who was tapped Monday by President-elect Donald Trump to head the Gary Cohn , is second-in-command at investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, which he once hoped to lead. Cohn, 56, has worked on Wall Street since the 1990s and is one the firm’s best known public faces. He makes frequent television appearances to talk about the health of financial markets and the global economy.

• Tuesday, December 13th 2016 - 07:32 UTC

  Guterres sworn in as UN Secretary General: pledges more delivery and less on process

  

  Portugal's António Guterres was sworn in Monday as the ninth U.N. secretary-general. “The United Nations needs to be nimble, efficient and effective,” Guterres told member states. “It must focus more on delivery and less on process; more on people and less on bureaucracy,” he said.

• Monday, December 12th 2016 - 17:51 UTC

  US, EU and Japan do not recognize China as market economy: Beijing anticipates retaliation

  

  China's battle for recognition as a market economy that would help it avoid penalties from key trade partners has been thwarted, as a key clause in Beijing's deal to join the WTO expired on Sunday.

• Monday, December 12th 2016 - 15:57 UTC

  Falklands/Malvinas: Next steps to identify Argentine soldiers buried in Darwin Cemetery agreed

  

  The Falkland Islands government has issued a release relative to the meeting held last Friday, in Geneva, chaired by the Red Cross to address the identification of Argentine soldiers buried at the Falkland' Darwin cemetery. Falklands' lawmaker, MLA Mike Summers was in attendance for these talks as part of the UK delegation.

• Monday, December 12th 2016 - 15:17 UTC

  Germany wants to extends unilateral border controls beyond EU's deadline

  

  As EU's Interior Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos declined an extension beyond February and pushed for things to go “back to Schengen,” Germany prepares to go ahead on its own to maintain the border controls in Bavaria for a longer period of time. Border controls between the Schengen countries are only acceptable as a time-limited exception to the rule of open borders. Better protected EU external borders should make the controls in the interior of Europe superfluous.

• Monday, December 12th 2016 - 14:18 UTC

  Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni is Italy's new Prime Minister

  

  State President Sergio Mattarella commissioned the 62-year-old Social Democrat to form a new government. Gentiloni said his nomination was a “great honor,” which he wanted to fulfill with “consciousness of responsibility and dignity.” It is unclear whether he will remain in office until spring 2018.