Politics

• Monday, September 29th 2014 - 09:22 UTC

  Venezuela's Bolivar hits a record low of 100 to the US dollar

  

  Venezuela's Bolivar currency hit a record low 100 to the U.S. dollar on the black market on Friday, making the dollar 16 times more expensive than the strongest official rate, according to a website that tracks it.

• Monday, September 29th 2014 - 09:16 UTC

  Rousseff pledges media regulation (but not content) if re-elected this week

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, seeking re-election next week, says she will pursue media regulation if she returns for a second term, seeking to boost pluralism without influencing editorial content, according to media reports.

• Monday, September 29th 2014 - 08:54 UTC

  Uruguay needs to improve infrastructure, “especially roads and port facilities”

  

  Finland's UPM, one of the largest forestry groups in the world, does not intend for the moment to build any new pulp mills in Uruguay, said Jaakko Sarantola, vice president of the cellulose division of the company, who also pointed out that Uruguay needs to improve infrastructure to facilitate logistics.

• Monday, September 29th 2014 - 08:47 UTC

  Opening the economy “would be a disaster for Brazilian industry” states Rousseff minister

  

  Anticipating what could be policy under a second government of President Dilma Rousseff, her Trade Minister Mauro Borges told Brazilian daily Folha do Sao Paulo that opening the country to more foreign trade would be a “disaster for Brazilian industry” and lead to the “mexicanization” of the economy, in reference to the light assembly factories known as “maquiladoras” that dominate Mexico’s non-oil exports.

• Monday, September 29th 2014 - 08:39 UTC

  Argentine stats on economic growth again come under suspicion

  

  Argentina’s government released some hopeful economic statistics last week with numbers showing that the economy climbed out of recession in the last quarter. But with skepticism over the numbers, combined with a free-falling peso, in light of Argentina’s debt dispute with holdout creditors, economists still have a grim outlook the Mercosur member economy.

• Monday, September 29th 2014 - 08:33 UTC

  French far-right won its first ever seats in the country's Senate

  

  The far-right National Front won its first ever seats in France's upper house of parliament, as President Francois Hollande's Socialist party lost its Senate majority. The left still controls the lower house, which is the dominant legislative body in France, but Sunday's ballot underlined the unpopularity of the president and the continued rise of the anti-immigration, anti-Euro National Front.

• Monday, September 29th 2014 - 08:25 UTC

  UK far right party gaining ground into conservative turf

  

  A lawmaker from Britain’s ruling Conservative party defected to the anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), dealing a blow to Prime Minister David Cameron on the eve of his party’s annual conference.

• Monday, September 29th 2014 - 08:15 UTC

  Spain's constitutional court to decide on Catalonia's referendum announcement

  

  Catalonia's president on Saturday formally called a referendum to decide whether Spain's richest region should be independent, defying Madrid which vowed to block the move. Shortly after Artur Mas set the vote for November 9, the Spanish government said the referendum would not take place because it was “unconstitutional”.

• Sunday, September 28th 2014 - 11:06 UTC

  Falklands celebrates Chile's National Day with party at Government House

  

  The Chilean community in the Falkland Islands celebrated their country’s independence day on Thursday 18 September with a reception hosted by H E the Governor Colin Roberts at Government House, and a party at the Narrows Bar.

• Sunday, September 28th 2014 - 10:10 UTC

  Blatter says 'corruption report' will not be made public arguing 'confidentiality'

  

  Sepp Blatter says a report into allegations of corruption in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests will not be made public. During a press conference wrapping up a two-day executive meeting, the FIFA president said that the report by the federation’s chief investigator Michael Garcia will not be published.