Politics

• Tuesday, January 14th 2014 - 07:39 UTC

  Argentine Supreme court Judge blasts the police and the political elite

  

  To avoid a repeat of recent police strikes and the violence that followed the government should review the structure of Argentina’s police force, Supreme Court Justice Eugenio Zaffaroni declared, taking aim at both the country’s police and its political elite.

• Tuesday, January 14th 2014 - 07:32 UTC

  Mercosur and EU to exchange tariff reduction proposals in early February

  

  Paraguay's Foreign minister Eladio Loizaga said on Monday that at the latest in early February Mercosur and the European Union would be exchanging their tariff reduction proposals for the much delayed free trade agreement. The deadline originally was December but it was delayed on request from Brussels.

• Tuesday, January 14th 2014 - 07:23 UTC

  Prison sentences for those who drill for oil in Malvinas waters, warns Argentina

  

  ”Argentina will defend its claim” over the Malvinas Islands and companies drilling for oil off the coast of the contested resource-rich archipelago “will not only face administrative consequences but also prison sentences” warned Daniel Filmus, head of Argentina's recently created Malvinas Islands Secretariat, in an interview with The Guardian.

• Tuesday, January 14th 2014 - 00:54 UTC

  Chile, Peru prepare as Hague Court sets to resolve territorial dispute

  

  With the decision over ongoing maritime dispute between Chile and Peru just weeks away, government officials on both sides insist relations between them are strong. On Jan. 27 Peru and Chile are set to find out who has legal ownership over 14,500 square miles of fishing waters off their borders, putting an end to a centuries-long dispute and ending a five year international court case.

• Tuesday, January 14th 2014 - 00:00 UTC

  Foreign Office stretched “almost to the limit”, warns Parliament: “a more realistic approach needed”

  

  The Foreign Office is being stretched “almost to the limit” as it attempts to cut spending at a time of international turbulence while having to cope with additional demands such as the London Olympics, MPs have said.

• Monday, January 13th 2014 - 07:35 UTC

  A frustrated Mujica calls for a readjustment of Mercosur legal framework

  

  Uruguayan president José Mujica said that members of Mercosur must readjust the block's legal framework ‘to make it work’ so that differences among its partners can be resolved in an institutional framework. He insisted on a review and amendment of mechanisms with greater flexibility and more adapted to current circumstances.

• Monday, January 13th 2014 - 07:27 UTC

  Nicaragua announces that construction of inter-ocean canal begins this year

  

  President Manuel Ortega said on Saturday that the construction of a massive inter-oceanic canal in Nicaragua that could significantly alter global trade would start at the end of 2014. Ortega gave a Chinese group a concession to manage the future shipping channel for 50 years, with the possibility to renew the contract for another 50.

• Monday, January 13th 2014 - 07:01 UTC

  UK EU 2017 membership referendum clears first hurdle but triggers further controversy

  

  The Tory plan for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union cleared its first hurdle in the House of Lords last week. The Bill was given an unopposed second reading after a lengthy seven-hour debate in the Lords, in which more than 60 peers spoke.

• Monday, January 13th 2014 - 06:55 UTC

  Pope puts his stamp as he names 19 new cardinals, including his Buenos Aires successor

  

  Pope Francis put his first stamp on the group at the top of the Roman Catholic hierarchy naming 19 new cardinals from around the world. Sixteen of them are “cardinal electors” under 80 and thus eligible to enter a conclave to elect a pope. They come from Italy, Germany, Britain, Nicaragua, Canada, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea, Chile, Burkina Faso, the Philippines and Haiti.

• Monday, January 13th 2014 - 06:49 UTC

  Francis baptizes children of an unmarried couple and a from a single mother

  

  Pope Francis has baptized 32 babies in the Sistine Chapel and told their mothers to have no qualms about feeding them there. Two of the infants are the daughter of a couple that did not get married in the Catholic Church and a single mother's son.