Politics

Wednesday, January 7th 2015 - 06:56 UTC
Republicans expose divisions as Boehner narrowly wins third term as House speaker

John Boehner narrowly won a third term as United States House of Representatives speaker, surviving a stiff challenge from 25 conservative Republicans as the party took full control of Congress.
Wednesday, January 7th 2015 - 06:52 UTC
Argentina and Chile agree on three tunnel projects drilling the Andes

Argentina and Chile signed on Tuesday in Santiago the creation of a bi-national entity responsible for the Las Leñas Pass tunnel project (Ebileñas) to be drilled in the Andes connecting the two countries.
Wednesday, January 7th 2015 - 06:39 UTC
Land possession and peasants, the first strong clash in Rousseff's cabinet

Land possession has caused the first clashes in the newly named cabinet of President Dilma Rousseff with Agriculture minister Katia Abreu arguing there are no large estates ('latifundium') left in Brazil, while her Agrarian Development peer and a stalwart from the ruling party said a social approach was needed to the land and peasants issue.
Wednesday, January 7th 2015 - 06:20 UTC
Brazil sends foreign minister to China/Celac meeting in Beijing

Brazil's new foreign minister Mauro Vieira has left for Beijing to attend the first ministerial meeting between China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, CELAC, according to reports from Brasilia.
Wednesday, January 7th 2015 - 04:20 UTC
Colombia launches first Antarctic research expedition with Chilean training

Colombia's first Antarctica expedition is expected to call in Punta Arenas on Wednesday before crossing to the peninsula to begin a three-month scientific hydrographic and climate research with twenty researchers on board committed to ten projects.
Wednesday, January 7th 2015 - 04:10 UTC
Shortage of tampons in Argentina because of import restrictions

Ladies in distress, particularly in summer time when going swimming is a ritual in Argentina: in effect because of the imports restrictions and lack of sufficient dollars, tampons are in short supply. They had been scarce all along the year but the situation peaked now that summer holidays have taken off.
Tuesday, January 6th 2015 - 23:11 UTC
Energy crisis as early as 2016

Low oil prices today may be setting the world up for an oil shortage as early as 2016. Today we have just 2% more crude oil supply than demand and the price of gasoline is under $2.00/gallon in Texas. If oil supply falls too far, we could see gasoline prices doubling within 18 months. For a commodity as critical to our standard of living as oil is, it only takes a small shortage to drive up the price.
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.