Politics

• Monday, March 24th 2014 - 06:52 UTC

  Spain mourns the loss of the man who played a key role in the transition to democracy

  

  Former Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez, who played a key role in Spain's transition to democracy, died in Madrid on Sunday. He was 81. The former premier was hospitalized last Monday with respiratory problems related to Alzheimer's, his family said.

• Monday, March 24th 2014 - 06:47 UTC

  EU/Mercosur still in the cold but committed to reach an agreement in coming months

  

  The European Union and Mercosur held last Friday in Brussels the technical meeting, as was scheduled to assess the state of negotiations for a long delayed and ambitious association and trade agreement, but concluded with no calendar for the exchange of tariff reduction proposals, which is central to the discussions.

• Sunday, March 23rd 2014 - 09:43 UTC

  Federal troops to Rio do Janeiro to try and contain attacks against the police

  

  The government in Brazil says it will send federal troops to Rio de Janeiro to help deal with a spate of violent attacks targeting the city's police. The decision came after the governor of Rio de Janeiro state, Sergio Cabral, asked President Dilma Rousseff for government support ahead of the football World Cup in June.

• Saturday, March 22nd 2014 - 12:12 UTC

  Putin formalizes Russia's takeover of Crimea despite US and EU sanctions

  

  With a display of fireworks in Moscow and Crimea, President Vladimir Putin has signed a law formalizing Russia's takeover of Crimea from Ukraine, despite fresh sanctions from the EU and the US. The European Union's latest measures target twelve people involved in Russia's annexation of the peninsula.

• Saturday, March 22nd 2014 - 08:01 UTC

  The Falklands/Malvinas: Brazil’s next regional headache?

  

  By Oliver Stuenkel (*) - Brazil, foreign policy observers often point out, is blessed. Contrary to many other emerging powers such as China or India, it is located in a region that rarely experiences interstate tension or war. Not only can Brazil live on a relatively small defense budget, while India is the world's largest arms importer. Brazil can also dedicate considerable time and energy towards extending its global diplomatic reach without constantly being forced to deal with trouble in its neighborhood.

• Saturday, March 22nd 2014 - 07:50 UTC

  Malvinas Families wish to have a chapel at Darwin cemetery and requested the “Pope's mediation”

  

  The Malvinas war next of kin are trying to have a chapel or a sanctuary built at the Darwin cemetery, in the Falkland Islands where the remains of 237 Argentine combatants are buried. The idea is to convert “this space in dispute in a peregrination place”, according to a report from the Argentine official news agency Telam.

• Saturday, March 22nd 2014 - 07:37 UTC

  Pope calls on the mafia to change or 'end up in hell, at annual ceremony for the mafiosi victims

  

  Pope Francis, in an annual ceremony held to remember the hundreds of innocent people murdered by the Italian mafia, made a solemn plea for mobsters to change or else “end up in hell”. The mafia continues to plague much of southern Italy: just on Monday, a four-year-old boy was shot dead, along with his mother and her boyfriend, near the southern city of Taranto in a suspected mob hit.

• Saturday, March 22nd 2014 - 07:31 UTC

  Mercosur and EU in another effort to advance in the long delayed trade agreement

  

  Mercosur and European Union chief negotiators met on Friday in Brussels to define if conditions are ready for the exchange of tariffs reductions proposals with the purpose of reaching an ambitious trade agreement which was started back in 1999 and has yet to mature.

• Saturday, March 22nd 2014 - 07:11 UTC

  Falklands' prosperity and economic boom surprises visiting Brazilian delegation

  

  Visiting Brazilian political advisor and environmentalist Eduardo Viola emphatically expressed support for the Falkland Islands’ right of self-determination during a press conference in Stanley with other visiting Brazilian colleagues, reports this week's edition of Penguin News.

• Friday, March 21st 2014 - 09:50 UTC

  Unasur 'democratic clause' comes into force after ratification by Uruguay and Colombia

  

  Any country that suffers an interruption to its democratic order will be automatically excluded from Unasur (Union of South American Nations), the bloc announced this week, after its “democratic clause” came into force and as Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed that a US-funded campaign is trying to ouster him.