Politics

• 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.

• Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 07:16 UTC

  Falklands' has a non-official anthem, already played in two public occasions

  

  A non official anthem celebrating the Falkland Islands and which has been played at least on two public occasions is making the round of Facebook and can be enjoyed in U Tube.

• Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 06:54 UTC

  Top French economist refused to accept the Legion d'Honneur

  

  France's influential economist Thomas Piketty, author of the bestseller “Capital in the 21st Century”, refused to accept the country's highest award, the Legion d'Honneur, arguing it is not the government's job to decide who is honorable and criticizing policies of the current Socialist administration.

• Saturday, January 3rd 2015 - 06:42 UTC

  Mujica's wife will run for mayor of Montevideo, Uruguay's main electoral base

  

  Senator Lucia Topolansky, the wife of outgoing Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, will run for mayor of Montevideo in the May 2015 elections, representatives of the governing centre leftist Broad Front coalition announced this week.