Politics

• Tuesday, January 6th 2015 - 22:36 UTC

  China, Australia and Thailand with plans to improve submarine fleets

  

  China, Australia and possibly Thailand are planning to increase, replace or incorporate modern submarines to their fleets according to reports from Asia-Pacific countries. In the case of China they are expected to be nuclear-powered attack subs armed with ballistic missiles and should be operational by 2020.

• Tuesday, January 6th 2015 - 22:12 UTC

  Spain tried to abort US Congress bill in support of Gibraltar's right to self determination

  

  Spain tried to persuade US politicians to drop an initiative calling for the House of Representatives in Washington to formally recognize Gibraltar’s right to self-determination. The plea was contained in a letter from Spain’s ambassador to Washington, Ramon Gil-Casares, to Republican Congressman George Holding, who sponsored the bi-partisan resolution.

• Tuesday, January 6th 2015 - 22:00 UTC

  Cuba has freed some of 53 political prisoners, as agreed in the rapprochement with the US

  

  Cuba has freed some of 53 people the United States regards as political prisoners as agreed under last month's US-Cuban rapprochement and Washington wants to see the rest released soon, the US State Department said on Tuesday.

• Tuesday, January 6th 2015 - 07:32 UTC

  Brazil' finance minister pledges fiscal balance and cuts in spending

  

  Brazil must focus on making difficult fiscal adjustments in order to get economic growth and investment back in gear, the country's new Finance Minister Joaquim Levy said on Monday. At his swearing-in ceremony in Brasilia, Levy said the process will require the participation of society as a whole and will involve changes to taxes and spending, without resorting to accounting shortcuts.

• Tuesday, January 6th 2015 - 07:24 UTC

  Germany' growing consensus to let Greece drop out of the Euro block

  

  Germany has said it will not be “blackmailed” into renegotiating Greece’s rescue program should a new hard left government take office after elections later this month. The Euro dropped to a nine-year low after a report in Der Spiegel magazine on Monday that Berlin was no longer opposed to Athens leaving the currency bloc.

• Tuesday, January 6th 2015 - 07:02 UTC

  Argentine farmers netted 24.1 billion dollars from grains and oilseeds last year

  

  Argentine farmers exported more than 300 million dollars worth of grains and oilseeds in the last two days of 2014 to help bring in much needed cash for the nation’s central bank. The situation was boosted by an agreement reached between farmers and the Argentine government regarding foreign currency payment for the grains and oilseed.

• Tuesday, January 6th 2015 - 06:58 UTC

  Optimistic forecast for Latin America: 2.2% growth in 2015, up from 1.3% in 2014

  

  Latin America and the Caribbean's economic growth might recover modestly to 2.2% in 2015, up from 1.3% in 2014, its lowest rate since last decade's global financial crisis. Despite the slowdown, the region has managed to maintain its gains against poverty, said Inter-American Development Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno.

• Tuesday, January 6th 2015 - 06:30 UTC

  Falklands' dispute: claims Japanese company fished in Argentine and Islands waters

  

  The Argentine ministries of Foreign Affairs, and Agriculture and Fisheries are considering the consequences of a complaint filed in recent days by a top official from a local company (Empresa Pesquera de la Patagonia y Antártica S.A., Pesantar) warning that the vessel “Union Sur” had fished in Falkland Islands last November.

• Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 08:02 UTC

  Euro becomes the official currency in Lithuania: 19th member of the zone

  

  The Euro entered circulation in Lithuania on New Year, bringing the number of European Union (EU) Member States using the single European currency to 19. The European Central Bank (ECB) announced that Lithuania also joined its banking supervision under the Single Supervisory Mechanism.

• Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 07:56 UTC

  Dragui remarks makes Euro fall to its lowest against the dollar since June 2010

  

  The euro fell Friday to a 4 ½-year low against the dollar after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi indicated the bank could soon back a government bond-buying program to deal with alarmingly low inflation across the 19-country Euro-zone.