Politics

• Sunday, February 26th 2017 - 13:50 UTC

  Paraguayan guerrillas free abducted teenager after ransom is paid

  

  A Mennonite teenager, Franz Weiber who was abducted last July by Paraguayan Marxist inspired guerrillas in the north of the country was released on Saturday, safe and sound, after the family and friends collected the equivalent of US$ 25.000 in food to distribute among fourteen Indian communities in the area.

• Sunday, February 26th 2017 - 11:29 UTC

  Argentine economy finally seems to have began a rebound

  

  Argentina's economic activity rose 1.6% in December compared with the previous month, government data showed, a sign the economy likely expanded in the fourth quarter after a long recession. The economy fell 0.1% in December year over year and closed 2016 down 2.3% compared with 2015.

• Saturday, February 25th 2017 - 11:30 UTC

  Pope Francis defends indigenous peoples' rights to their ancestral lands

  

  Pope Francis insisted that indigenous groups must give prior consent to any economic activity affecting their ancestral lands, a view that conflict with the Trump administration, which is pushing to build a US$3.8bn oil pipeline over opposition from American Indians.

• Saturday, February 25th 2017 - 11:23 UTC

  Cuba denies visas to OAS chief, ex Mexican president and ex Chilean minister

  

  The Organization of American States Secretary-General Luis Almagro said Wednesday that the Cuban government denied him permission to enter the island to receive a human rights prize created to honor late dissident Oswaldo Paya. Mexican ex-President Felipe Calderon and former Chilean Education Minister Maria Aylwin were denied entry to the island the day before.

• Saturday, February 25th 2017 - 10:52 UTC

  Futuristic €450 million yacht freed from arrest in Gibraltar; heads for Cartagena

  

  The futuristic €450 million yacht at the centre of a €15.3m legal wrangle has been freed from admiralty arrest and sailed from Gibraltar early Wednesday morning. Sailing Yacht A weighed anchor at around 8.30am and sailed from the Bay of Gibraltar in rough seas bound for the Mediterranean, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

• Saturday, February 25th 2017 - 10:32 UTC

  EC president Juncker remembers UK's Brexit includes a “very salty” exit bill

  

  A future relationship between Britain and the European Union will take years to negotiate and the UK can expect a hefty bill as the price of exit, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has warned. Mr. Juncker said Britain must understand that it will not be able to negotiate a “cut-price or zero-cost” exit from the EU, but will have to settle the bill for commitments which it entered into as a member.

• Friday, February 24th 2017 - 18:55 UTC

  Brazil central bank cuts interest rate hoping to overcome recession

  

  Brazil cut its key interest rate further on Wednesday to try to prop Latin America's biggest economy out of its worst recession in a century. The country's central bank cut the benchmark rate by 0.75 percentage points to 12.25%, still one of the worlds highest.

• Friday, February 24th 2017 - 15:51 UTC

  Falklands and Brexit, subjects raised by visiting MPs to the Islands

  

  The impact of Brexit on the Falkland Islands and the economy in general were subjects raised with visiting Members of Parliament this week. The delegation of four made a flying visit to the Falkland Islands last weekend accompanied by FI Representative in London Sukey Cameron.

• Thursday, February 23rd 2017 - 10:38 UTC

  Ex Falklands governor and local hero dies peacefully in Ireland

  

  Ex Falkland’s governor Sir Cosmo Haskard KCMG MBE passed away peacefully at his home in Tregariff, County Cork, Ireland on Tuesday. Sir Haskard was Governor from 1964 to 1970, an advocate of the Islands and played a major role in preventing the transfer of sovereignty to Argentina. He celebrated his 100th birthday last year.

• Thursday, February 23rd 2017 - 10:31 UTC

  Rosario and Liverpool mayors sign human rights enhancement agreement

  

  Mayors of Rosario, Argentina and Liverpool, Monica Fein and Joseph Anderson signed a human rights cooperation agreement on Wednesday in Liverpool, the first of its kind between Argentine and British cities since the 1982 conflict.