Politics

• Saturday, December 14th 2013 - 06:21 UTC

  Lloyds bank 'collects' another fine: this time for retail conduct failings

  

  Lloyds Banking Group has been fined £28m for “serious failings” in relation to bonus schemes for sales staff. The UK Financial Conduct Authority said it was the largest fine that it or the former Financial Services Authority had imposed for retail conduct failings.

• Saturday, December 14th 2013 - 06:04 UTC

  Argentina: compensation to security forces that helped contain police protests and looting

  

  Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich confirmed on Friday that President Cristina Fernández will announce next week an “economic and financial recognition” to the members of national security forces following the deployment of 12,000 agents across the country to counter the impacts of the police protests and lootings that hit almost all Argentine provinces over the past days.

• Saturday, December 14th 2013 - 05:56 UTC

  Prince Harry and team of 'Walking with the wounded' reach South Pole

  

  Prince Harry and his fellow adventurers in the Walking With The Wounded expedition have arrived at the South Pole, the organizers have said. The group stood at the bottom of the world at 12:00 GMT Friday after more than three weeks of pulling sleds.

• Friday, December 13th 2013 - 18:10 UTC

  Venezuela clashes with World Bank over oil deal with Haiti

  

  Venezuela has dismissed as “disrespectful” comments made by a senior World Bank official that Haiti was not transparent in its handling of funds provided under the Caracas-led PetroCaribe.

• Friday, December 13th 2013 - 13:14 UTC

  Madrid vows to block any independence referendum in Catalonia

  

  The Spanish government has vowed to block plans by parties in Catalonia to hold a referendum on independence on 9 November of next year. “The poll will not be held,” Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon told journalists moments after Catalonia's President, Artur Mas, announced a deal.

• Friday, December 13th 2013 - 13:04 UTC

  Brazil to lower economy stimulus beginning with subsidized credit lines

  

  Brazil will raise interest rates on some state-subsidized credit lines in 2014 withdrawing part of the stimulus that helped boost investments but also hurt public finances this year. Interest rates on loans for the purchase of capital goods and trucks will climb to 6% per year, from 4%, while a special credit line for exports will climb to 8% from 5.5%.

• Friday, December 13th 2013 - 12:57 UTC

  Argentina surprised by EU request to delay another month trade negotiations with Mercosur

  

  The European Union has asked for a one-month delay in the exchange of proposals to kick off free-trade negotiations with Mercosur, Argentine Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich confirmed on Thursday. The news was first reported by Sao Paulo newspapers on statements from Brazilian Foreign minister Luiz Fernando Figuereido.

• Friday, December 13th 2013 - 12:30 UTC

  Francis calls for more wealth-sharing among people and nations to narrow rich/poor gap

  

  Pope Francis attacked mega-salaries and big bonuses saying in the first peace message of his pontificate that they are symptoms of an economy based on greed and inequality

• Friday, December 13th 2013 - 12:18 UTC

  Spain not sure about success in legal challenge of Gibraltar waters

  

  Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel García-Margallo has expressed confidence that Madrid would win a legal case over jurisdiction of Gibraltar’s isthmus, though he was less certain about success in any challenge over the waters. He said the isthmus was not ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht and “illegally” occupied, but that Spain had yet to decide whether to “legally reclaim it or not”.

• Friday, December 13th 2013 - 12:13 UTC

  'Abstention' the main challenge for Chilean presidency election run-off on Sunday

  

  Chileans are set to head to the polls this Sunday to choose their next president, but experts fear much more than half the electorate will opt not for Michelle Bachelet or Evelyn Matthei, but to stay at home on election day instead. The election’s first round, held Nov. 17, saw the debut of the voluntary voting system in Chilean presidential elections and a turnout of 6.7 million, half-a-million-votes less than were counted in 2010, when voting was still mandatory for those on the electoral role.