Politics

• Wednesday, August 5th 2015 - 07:49 UTC

  German Executive and Judiciary clash over freedom of the press: top prosecutor sacked

  

  Germany's justice minister has sacked the country's top prosecutor, who had accused the government of interfering with a treason investigation. Heiko Maas said he no longer had confidence in Harald Range, dismissing his statements as “incomprehensible”.

• Wednesday, August 5th 2015 - 07:25 UTC

  UK government begins sale of rescued RBS, but a third below the price it paid

  

  The British government has begun its sell-off of shares in part-nationalized lender Royal Bank of Scotland, raising £2.1bn, a third below the price it paid. It sold a 5.4% stake at 330p a share, a 7.6p discount on Monday's closing price.

• Wednesday, August 5th 2015 - 07:08 UTC

  “Shoot first, ask questions later”, the Rio do Janeiro military police procedure

  

  Military police in Rio de Janeiro who seem to follow a “shoot first, ask questions later” strategy are contributing to a soaring homicide rate but are rarely investigated and brought to justice, Amnesty International said on Monday as it published exclusive statistics and analysis ahead of the one-year countdown to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 18:40 UTC

  US closer to lifting 40-year ban on oil and natural gas exports; bill needs Senate floor vote

  

  The United States is closer to begin exporting oil. The Senate Energy Committee passed a bill last week that would lift a decades-old ban on the export of crude oil. The 22-member panel approved the initiative to allow the US to export oil and boost state revenue-sharing for offshore oil and gas drilling by a vote of 12-10.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 09:35 UTC

  UK landlords must evict illegal immigrants under new legislation

  

  Landlords in England will be expected to evict tenants who lose the right to live in the UK under new measures to clamp down on illegal immigration. They will be able to end tenancies, sometimes without a court order, when asylum requests fail, ministers say.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 06:06 UTC

  Repsol makes first shipment from offshore gas field in the Gulf of Venezuela

  

  The first shipment to onshore facilities has been made from the offshore gas field discovered in 2009 in the Gulf of Venezuela by Spain's Repsol and Italy's Eni, Venezuelan officials said.President Nicolas Maduro called the arrival of the gas a “historic” event during a ceremony on Saturday to mark the completion of the first shipment.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 05:59 UTC

  Venezuelan government bans opposition leader from running in congressional election

  

  Venezuelan election officials rejected a high-profile opposition leader's attempt to register as a candidate Monday for upcoming congressional elections. Former congresswoman Maria Corina Machado announced that the National Elections Council had rejected her attempt to register to run in the Dec. 6 elections and called it a grotesque violation of her rights.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 05:49 UTC

  ExxonMobil rig concludes exploration offshore Guyana: resumes seismic studies

  

  An ExxonMobil rig that re-ignited a maritime boundary dispute between Guyana and Venezuela has now left the area, a Guyanese official said on Monday, but denying it was because of Venezuelan pressure.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 05:35 UTC

  Puerto Rico declared on default by Moody's after failing to make debt full payment

  

  Puerto Rico's Government Development Bank announced Monday that it was only able to make a partial payment on its Public Finance Corporation (PFC) debt service due over the weekend. In response to the non-payment of the full service, credit rating agency Moody's said it viewed the situation as a default.

• Tuesday, August 4th 2015 - 05:27 UTC

  Catalonia challenges Madrid: calls elections for September, ahead of Spain's national ballot in November

  

  The leader of Spain's wealthy Catalonia region President signed a decree on Monday calling parliamentary elections for 27 September, a year earlier than necessary and according to political analysts, a proxy vote on the much debated controversial independence.