Politics

• Saturday, October 31st 2015 - 10:12 UTC

  Chavistas “will not surrender the revolution”, even in defeat in December's elections, warned Maduro

  

  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro warned that he wouldn’t let a defeat in December congressional elections derail his government even as his socialist party faces the possibility of losing control of the national assembly for the first time in 16 years.

• Saturday, October 31st 2015 - 09:40 UTC

  UK and Brazil committed to exchange of EU/Mercosur market access offers by end of 2015

  

  The United Kingdom and Brazil reaffirmed on Friday their support for the success of the European Union/Mercosur Association agreement negotiations in the framework of the eighth meeting of the UK-Brazil Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) which emphasizes bilateral cooperation and initiatives.

• Saturday, October 31st 2015 - 07:14 UTC

  Falklands' visit early next year for Shadow Foreign minister Stephen Doughty

  

  Cardiff South and Penarth MP Stephen Doughty has become the shadow minister responsible for Africa, South Asia and the Falkland Islands, reports Walesonline. The Labour MP takes on the role at a time when the UK is responding to the migrant crisis in North Africa and tensions have heightened between Britain and Argentina over the future of the Falklands, the Islands which he plans to visit early next year.

• Saturday, October 31st 2015 - 07:04 UTC

  Griesa accepts 'me too' claims and raises Argentina's bond debt to US$ 9bn

  

  US judge Thomas Griesa on Friday accepted the priority repayment claims of hundreds more Argentine bondholders who did not join a huge debt restructuring. The ruling, on 49 complaints representing debt worth $6.1 billion, added fresh pressure on Buenos Aires which has refused to pay off two hedge fund creditors that already won court support for their claims.

• Saturday, October 31st 2015 - 06:51 UTC

  Venezuela seeking an additional 12 Sukhoi fighter jets from Russia

  

  Venezuela will allocate $480 million to upgrade its Sukhoi fighter jets from Russia. “President Nicolas Maduro just authorized the payment of $480 million so that the service life of our Sukhoi planes and continue to fulfill their duty and give protection to the Venezuelan airspace,” Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez was quoted, by Moscow's Sputnik news agency on Thursday.

• Saturday, October 31st 2015 - 06:42 UTC

  Unemployment in recession-hit Brazil climbing: 8.8 million looking for jobs

  

  Unemployment in recession deep Brazil climbed to 8.7% of active population in the quarter ending last August, the government said Thursday. The indicator shows a steep hike from the 6.9% recorded in August 2014, according to statistics of the National Study of Households (PNAD), published by the state Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

• Friday, October 30th 2015 - 07:48 UTC

  Chinese couples allowed to have a second child; policy was imposed in 1979 to slow population growth

  

  China has decided to end its decades-long one-child policy, the state-run Xinhua news agency reports. Couples will now be allowed to have two children, it said, citing a statement from the Communist Party. The controversial policy was introduced nationally in 1979, to slow the population growth rate.

• Friday, October 30th 2015 - 07:39 UTC

  US growth slows sharply in the third quarter; consumer spending strong at 3.2%

  

  United States growth slowed sharply in the third quarter of the year. GDP grew at an annualized pace of 1.5% between July and September, according to the Department of Commerce, down from 3.9% in the second quarter. The slowdown was partly due to companies running down stockpiles of goods in their warehouses.

• Friday, October 30th 2015 - 07:15 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez calls at emotional rally to defend her progressive policies

  

  Argentina's outgoing leader Cristina Fernandez gave an emotional campaign speech on Thursday in her first public address since a surprisingly weak performance by her handpicked candidate in the first-round presidential election on Sunday. Without mentioning allied candidate Daniel Scioli by name, the outgoing president implicitly backed him by calling for support for her progressive social policies to go on after she hands the presidency over to her successor in six weeks.

• Friday, October 30th 2015 - 06:37 UTC

  Falklands' Humpback well finds non-commercial quantities of oil and gas

  

  Humpback is the first well to encounter oil in the potentially larger systems in deeper waters off the southeast of the Falkland Islands; however the oil and gas across a number of reservoir targets in the well drilled to a depth of 5.136 meters, were in non-commercial quantities.