Politics

• Thursday, November 21st 2013 - 07:02 UTC

  US 'budget-debt ceiling' political clashes threaten slower world growth, warns OECD

  

  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, cut its forecast for global economic growth through next year and warned that fiscal and monetary policy decisions looming in the U.S. could derail the recovery. OECD said world economic output would expand 2.7% this year and 3.6% in 2014, down from May's forecast of 3.1% and 4%.

• Thursday, November 21st 2013 - 06:56 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez for the first time live since surgery, takes the oath of new ministers

  

  In an emotional but brief (eleven minutes) ceremony Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, on Wednesday late evening, was back on stage at the Casa Rosada, the first time since she underwent cranium surgery six weeks ago, for the oath-taking ceremony of three new top officials who will be decisive ministers in the last two years of her second mandate.

• Thursday, November 21st 2013 - 06:52 UTC

  Spain says strict controls at Gibraltar border will remain: “a fight against illegal items and contraband”

  

  Spain’s Minister for European Affairs Iñigo Méndez de Vigo has said Madrid will maintain strict controls at the border. Speaking with the media in Brussels the minister said that the European Commission had endorsed the action it has being taking as in line with EU norms.

• Thursday, November 21st 2013 - 06:35 UTC

  Pro-Malvinas militant groups told by winch workers to keep out of the port of Buenos Aires

  

  Pickets organized by the Argentine fundamentalist group Quebracho to protest the docking in the port of Buenos Aires of the Bahamas flagged cruise “Seabourn Quest” which includes the Falkland Islands in its route were displaced by the union of winch operators in conflict over pay, work conditions and official registry of their grouping.

• Wednesday, November 20th 2013 - 22:38 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez assets increase 20% to 8 million dollars in 2012

  

  Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s assets increased in a 20% whereas Vice-President Amado Boudou’s estate decreased by 3%, according to the affidavits released this week by the Justice Ministry’s Anti-Corruption Office.

• Wednesday, November 20th 2013 - 21:15 UTC

  Abstention won Chile's Sunday election, but it's also a vote: rejecting the political system

  

  Chileans went to the polls Sunday and chose to send Michelle Bachelet and Evelyn Matthei to a runoff election with 46.7% and 25% of the vote respectively, but abstention far outstripped them both — less than half the number of voters on the electoral roll cast a vote.

• Wednesday, November 20th 2013 - 20:49 UTC

  US consumer prices fell 0.1% in October and in the last twelve months was 1%

  

  US consumer prices fell 0.1% in October as petrol prices dropped, the US Labor Department has said. Petrol prices fell 2.9%, the biggest drop since April. The cost of new cars, clothes and healthcare also fell. The decrease meant that annual inflation in the 12 months to October was just 1%.

• Wednesday, November 20th 2013 - 05:22 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez most emblematic and faithful “K soldier” sent to Italy

  

  On Tuesday, one day after resuming her Executive duties, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez accepted the resignation of the most emblematic of the Kirchner-couple bullying tactics, a true 'K soldier' who has been on the job since 2005 and was expected to step down with the lady in 2015.

• Wednesday, November 20th 2013 - 05:16 UTC

  U.S. and Europe talks advance towards liberalizing bilateral trade

  

  A week of trade talks in Brussels have taken the European Union and the United States a little closer to a deal to liberalize bilateral trade. EU officials say the trade relationship with the US is already the biggest in the world, worth more than 2bn Euros a day, but barriers remain, and removing them could make it even bigger. If it happens, the agreement would be huge, capable of changing the shape of global trade.

• Wednesday, November 20th 2013 - 04:55 UTC

  Uruguay confirms third pulp mill project, but to the east of the country close to Brazil

  

  Finland's UPM/Botnia plant, which is an ongoing motive of dispute with Argentina is planning a second pulp mill but to the east of Uruguay, announced Vice-president Danilo Astori, confirming a previous statement from the First Lady and Senator Lucia Topolansky.