Politics

• Thursday, December 31st 2015 - 08:22 UTC

  Switzerland hands bank documents from FIFA corruption to US prosecutors

  

  Swiss authorities have handed over the first round of bank documents seized in their FIFA corruption investigation to U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday. The Federal Office of Justice in Switzerland says the documents relate to “bank accounts allegedly used for bribes connected with the grant of marketing rights to soccer tournaments in Latin America and the USA.”

• Thursday, December 31st 2015 - 07:50 UTC

  Holdouts subpoena HSBC on Argentina's efforts to raise money abroad

  

  Creditors suing Argentina over billions of dollars in defaulted bonds have subpoenaed HSBC Holdings Plc for information about the country's effort to raise money abroad, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, as reported by Reuters.

• Thursday, December 31st 2015 - 07:43 UTC

  Global economic growth in 2016, “disappointing and patchy” forecasts Lagarde

  

  Global economic growth will be “disappointing and patchy” in 2016, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, wrote in an article published in the German business daily Handelsblatt on Wednesday.

• Thursday, December 31st 2015 - 07:31 UTC

  Chile's Bachelet waiting for the year to end: 2015 has been the worst in her political history

  

  It has been a bad year, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet told a Santiago newspaper this week, admitting that corruption scandals have sapped confidence in the country's institutions while sparking a reform drive that should bear fruit going forward.

• Wednesday, December 30th 2015 - 14:10 UTC

  Two ex ministers with prison sentences for Buenos Aires train accident that killed 51 and injured 789

  

  An Argentine court handed down prison sentences of up to nine years for those charged in the February 2012 train accident in Buenos Aires that killed 51 people and injured more than 700.

• Wednesday, December 30th 2015 - 02:24 UTC

  Russian polar vessel and helicopters will supply Argentine Antarctica bases

  

  For the eighth season, Argentina's Antarctic bases and stations are to be supplied by the Russian polar vessel Vasily Golovnin from Arkadia Ltd. This has been going on since 2007 when the Argentine flagship ice-breaker Almirante Irizar caught fire in the high seas and is still in repairs waiting for the necessary funds.

• Wednesday, December 30th 2015 - 00:51 UTC

  Dismal prospects for Brazilian economy in 2016, according to Central bank and budget deficit

  

  Analysts expect Brazil's economy to contract by 2.81% in 2016 after contracting by 3.70% this year, marking the biggest drop in economic output in 25 years, the Central Bank said on Monday. Economists are forecasting an inflation rate of 10.72% this year, the highest rate in 13 years, and 6.86% in 2016. The estimates seem to be supported by the latest numbers referred to the budget deficit.

• Wednesday, December 30th 2015 - 00:46 UTC

  Petrobras corruption 'net' involves Norwegian companies, claim Oslo media

  

  The huge corruption case swirling around Brazilian oil company Petrobras is being called the world’s largest, and increasing numbers of Norwegian companies seem to be getting tangled up in it. Norwegian bosses mostly claim no knowledge of any bribes being paid, but investigations are underway on several fronts.

• Tuesday, December 29th 2015 - 23:56 UTC

  Majority of Spaniards against a re-run of election; only 7% would change their vote says poll

  

  Less than one third of Spaniards want a re-run of 20 December's election, which resulted in a stalemate, with two-thirds favoring a pact between parties, a poll showed. Just 7% of those surveyed said they would change their votes in a fresh election, while 87.1% said they would vote the same way.

• Tuesday, December 29th 2015 - 08:23 UTC

  JPMorgan-Chase describes Macri's Argentina as “a ray of sunshine” in the region

  

  A growing number of foreign investors are signaling interest in Argentina following the pro-market turn that newly-inaugurated President Mauricio Macri started showing since taking office. The latest financial player to endorse the country as a promising investment destination was JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, where current Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay worked in the past.