Politics

• Friday, April 22nd 2016 - 08:07 UTC

  Venezuela imposes daily four/hours blackout to save power; brewery out of barley will stop beer production

  

  Recession-hit Venezuela will turn off the electricity supply in its 10 most populous states for four hours a day for 40 days to deal with a severe power shortage, the government said Thursday.

• Friday, April 22nd 2016 - 08:00 UTC

  Sentenced ex FIFA vice-president in home arrest following surgery in Uruguay

  

  FIFA's former vice-president and ex president of Uruguay's football association Eugenio Figueredo is under home arrest following prostate surgery. Judge Adriana de los Santos authorized the 'temporary' measure while the former official recovers. He was in hospital several days given his age, 84 and heart problems.

• Friday, April 22nd 2016 - 07:48 UTC

  Singer praises Macri and calls him a great 'reformist' in a Time weekly column

  

  United States hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer is a big fan of Argentina’s new president. For one thing, Mauricio Macri doesn’t call him a “vulture lord” or a “bloodsucker,” as his predecessor Cristina Fernández did. More important, the newly elected Macri recently paid Singer’s firm US$2.28 billion in debt.

• Friday, April 22nd 2016 - 07:25 UTC

  Queen Elizabeth II 90th birthday celebrations illuminate UK and Commonwealth

  

  Queen Elizabeth II lit on Thursday the first of more than 900 beacons lighting up across the UK and overseas as part of her 90th birthday celebrations. Prince Philip, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall then joined the monarch at a private dinner in Windsor Castle. Earlier, cheering crowds lined the streets in Windsor as the Queen took part in a walkabout.

• Thursday, April 21st 2016 - 12:49 UTC

  Gibraltar lights up for the Queen's ninetieth birthday

  

  Gibraltar will mark Thursday 21 April the Queen’s 90th birthday with her image projected onto the North face of the Rock. The number 90 will also be beamed onto the Moorish Castle, along with the lighting of a beacon and a 21 gun salute.

• Thursday, April 21st 2016 - 12:34 UTC

  Mounting evidence against Lula da Silva at Brazil's Supreme Court

  

  Brazil's Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended a meeting that was to decide whether former President Lula da Silva can be his successor's chief of staff. The delay came three days after the lower house of Congress voted to begin impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. She is accused of using accounting tricks in managing the federal budget.

• Thursday, April 21st 2016 - 12:16 UTC

  Ecuador raises taxes to rebuild cities devastated by major earthquake which continues with aftershocks

  

  President Rafael Correa announced Wednesday night that he is raising sales taxes and will charge a one-time levy on millionaires to rebuild cities devastated by Ecuador's worst earthquake in decades. In a televised address, Correa said damages from the 7.8-magnitude quake will likely run into the billions of dollars, adding to already heavy economic hardships triggered by the collapse in world oil prices.

• Thursday, April 21st 2016 - 12:07 UTC

  Argentine bill proposes 25% higher penalties for attacks on a teacher

  

  An attack on a teacher would be punished with higher penalties than an attack on any other citizen under proposals in Argentina to raise the status of teaching. It is believed to be the first time teachers would have been given a special legal protection in this way.

• Thursday, April 21st 2016 - 11:22 UTC

  Rousseff will claim before UN she is victim of a “coup d'état without weapons”

  

  Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will travel to New York in a bid to rally international support against her impeachment, leaving behind a Cabinet paralyzed by political crisis as another minister defected Wednesday.

• Thursday, April 21st 2016 - 10:49 UTC

  Reporters organization questions media ownership concentration in Argentina

  

  Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) international organization questioned the abrogation of Argentina’s media law decided by the administration of President Mauricio Macri, warning the new legislation that creates the Enacom agency “favors” concentration of media ownership in the country.