Politics

• Saturday, November 30th 2013 - 19:42 UTC

  Rajoy meets PM Cameron and states the diplomatic bag incident in Gibraltar border 'resolved'

  

  Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy drew a line under the diplomatic bag incident at the Gibraltar border following a conversation with his British counterpart, David Cameron. The two men spoke on the side lines of an EU summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, although their conversation centered mostly on Scotland and Catalonia, according to Spanish reports. “This (incident) has been resolved” said the Spanish president.

• Saturday, November 30th 2013 - 07:25 UTC

  Falklands government accuses Argentina of yet another attempt to undermine the Islands economy

  

  The Falkland Islands government said on Friday that Argentina's latest illegal attempt to undermine the Islands economy is in direct contradiction with its alleged claim that it wants to establish a dialogue and is yet another effort to disrupt the lives of 3.000 people who want to live in peace and with good neighborly relations.

• Saturday, November 30th 2013 - 07:14 UTC

  Gibraltar chief minister mobbed by extremists in Spanish university

  

  Hooded far right extremists disrupted an academic event in the Spanish port of Algeciras at which Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo was due to have delivered a speech on cross-border cooperation Thursday night. They were joined by a group of fishermen from La Linea and Algeciras standing next to a banner that read “Picardo Fascista”.

• Saturday, November 30th 2013 - 07:00 UTC

  UN independent expert suggests Argentina audits foreign debt and improves social conditions

  

  United Nations independent expert urged authorities in Argentina to undertake an audit of its external debt to improve transparency, and to intensify efforts to improve social conditions for their people.

• Saturday, November 30th 2013 - 06:46 UTC

  Argentina, Brazil and Chile elected to the Int. Maritime Organization council

  

  Argentina, Chile and Brazil have been elected to be members of the International Maritime Organization Council for the 2014/15 biennium by the IMO assembly, which is meeting in London.

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 23:41 UTC

  Brazil corruption money: “between 32 and 53bn dollars in 2013” says FIESP

  

  Corruption is not new in Brazil nor does it surprise public opinion but the magnitude of such extended practice is only coming to light with a recent study from the powerful manufacturing lobby, FIESP (Federation of Industries of Sao Paulo State) which states that the average annual cost of corruption in the country is between 1.38% and 2.3% of GDP, which the World Bank in 2012 estimated at 2.3 trillion dollars.

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 23:30 UTC

  Brazil will have its own national-made secure communications satellite by 2016

  

  Brazil's state-owned telecom provider Telebras signed a 560m dollar contract to deliver a satellite for secure communications on Thursday, following months of outrage over revelations of US cyber spying. A statement said a joint venture between Telebras and Embraer would deliver the geostationary satellite for strategic communications by late 2016.

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 22:06 UTC

  Falklands involved oil company expects to raise £100 million in bond offer

  

  Premier Oil expects to raise at least £100 million in a bond offer scheduled to close on 6 December. The FTSE 250 oil and gas company, with interests in the Falkland Islands, the North Sea, and South-East Asia, said its 5% sterling bonds auction has already built a book value of at least £100 million.

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 07:44 UTC

  Mujica questions Argentine trade policies towards Mercosur that “take us back to the sixties”

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica again questioned Argentine president Cristina Fernandez administration trade policies which he said take us back 'to the sixties, when everybody locked in', and in effect deny Mercosur and harm other members.

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 07:39 UTC

  Mercosur must have an only voice and act as a block, advises former leader Sarkozy

  

  “Mercosur must have greater integration, act with an only voice and operate as a block”, advised former French president Nicholas Sarkozy at a business conference in Buenos Aires, where he also underlined that without the European Union, “France or Germany could have disappeared from the world map”