Politics

• Tuesday, January 7th 2014 - 06:05 UTC

  For second year running Uruguay manages deflation in December, keeps inflation in one digit

  

  Uruguay again managed a December with deflation, (as happened exactly a year ago) with the consumer prices index down 0.72%, helping to bring 2013 inflation to 8.52%, according to the official stats office, INE. This is the sixth year in the last ten that Uruguay despite an unprecedented decade long growth-boom and abundant revenue overshoots its inflation target.

• Tuesday, January 7th 2014 - 05:58 UTC

  Yellen confirmed as next Federal Reserve chairperson: Senate votes 56-26

  

  Janet Yellen, a key force behind the Federal Reserve's unprecedented and controversial efforts to boost the US economy, was confirmed on Monday by the Senate to lead the central bank just as it begins to unwind that stimulus.

• Monday, January 6th 2014 - 19:51 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez “working everyday” returns this week to Buenos Aires

  

  Argentine President Cristina Fernandez “works everyday” and is “complying with her constitutional responsibilities” said cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich on Monday responding to opposition voices that have criticized the leader who remains in the Patagonian city of El Calafate. He also announced that the president would be returning to Buenos Aires this week.

• Monday, January 6th 2014 - 19:47 UTC

  Merkel fractures her pelvis skiing and calls off foreign visits

  

  German Chancellor Angela Merkel has fractured her pelvis in a cross-country skiing accident and is walking with the help of crutches, forcing her to call off some foreign visits and official appointments, her spokesman has said.

• Monday, January 6th 2014 - 19:42 UTC

  Uruguayan minister says trade relations with Argentina “will never be the same”

  

  Industry, Energy and Mining Minister, Roberto Kreimerman, said Uruguay would try to settle disputes with Argentina in order to reestablish trade relations, but he also recognized Uruguay’s relationship with Argentina 'will never be the same'. The minister revealed that 32 million dollars of Uruguayan exports are blocked at Argentine Customs.

• Monday, January 6th 2014 - 19:17 UTC

  King of Spain admitted in 1983 advances in Gibraltar would reactivate Moroccan Ceuta claims

  

  As negotiations over Spain’s entry to the European Union grew tense in 1983, King Juan Carlos twice told British officials it was not to Spain’s advantage to recover Gibraltar, according to newly declassified documents released to the UK National Archives.

• Monday, January 6th 2014 - 19:13 UTC

  Record Spanish incursions into Gibraltar waters in the last twelve months

  

  Spain has made a record number of illegal incursions into Gibraltar waters in the past year, new figures show. The Sunday Telegraph said the figures capped a 12 month period in which relations between the Rock and Madrid “reached their lowest ebb since the rule of General Francisco Franco.”

• Monday, January 6th 2014 - 06:57 UTC

  Ballot test this year in Latam: Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Uruguay, Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador

  

  Seven out of 19 Latin-American countries will be holding elections this year and in four of them, Brazil, Bolivia, El Salvador and Uruguay, left leaning catch-all coalitions will try to hold on to power. Likewise with two conservative governments, Colombia and Panama.

• Monday, January 6th 2014 - 06:48 UTC

  Brazilian opposition ready to present attractive, balanced presidential ticket

  

  Former Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva has agreed to run for vice president in October elections on the presidential ticket of Eduardo Campos, the governor of Brazil’s Pernambuco state, O'Globo newspaper reported. Silva, who will make her intention publicly known by mid-February, could announce her candidacy at a January 17 meeting of leaders of Campos’ Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB).

• Monday, January 6th 2014 - 06:36 UTC

  Falkland Islands: Tory MPs furious with Cameron over aid programs to Argentina

  

  Even when there has been no official reply from London to Argentina's message to mark the 181th anniversary (January 3) of what it considers “the usurpation of our Malvinas Islands”, there was a strong reaction from Tory MPs when it was revealed that UK contributes several million pounds in aid programs to Argentina.