Politics

• Thursday, July 18th 2013 - 08:26 UTC

  Venezuelan parliament approves incorporation of Bolivia to Mercosur as full member

  

  The Venezuelan parliament approved Bolivia’s protocol of adherence to Mercosur as full member thus clearing the way for the landlocked mostly indigenous populated country to become the sixth member of the South American trade block next to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

• Wednesday, July 17th 2013 - 22:12 UTC

  Fed says asset purchases will remains above all flexible to market conditions

  

  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the US central bank still expects to start scaling back its massive asset purchase program later this year but left open the option of changing that plan in either direction if the economic outlook shifted.

• Wednesday, July 17th 2013 - 19:47 UTC

  HMS Argyll sailors recreate Shackleton’s trek across South Georgia Island

  

  Sailors from HMS Argyll followed in the footsteps of Britain’s greatest polar explorer when they recreated Sir Ernest Shackleton’s legendary trek across the snow and ice of South Georgia Island.

• Wednesday, July 17th 2013 - 07:50 UTC

  Brazil downplays the Pacific Alliance significance, as an “integration project”

  

  Brazilian Foreign minister Antonio Patriota downplayed the significance of the Alliance of the Pacific, the free trade agreement which includes Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico, arguing it is not a “real deep integration” as the one proposed by Mercosur.

• Wednesday, July 17th 2013 - 07:41 UTC

  Falklands: Timerman accuses Clarin of sponsoring the referendum and Foreign Office strategy

  

  Argentine Foreign minister Hector Timerman in a piece published in the pro-government Pagina 12 accused Buenos Aires daily Clarin of silencing, distorting, hiding and even lying about events in Argentina and particularly regarding the Malvinas colonial issue and in the March referendum ‘of playing to the Foreign Office strategy’.

• Wednesday, July 17th 2013 - 07:37 UTC

  “Applause for Argentines who invested in US real estate, I prefer a house in Paris”

  

  Argentine President Cristina Fernandez kept her tongue firmly in cheek as she referred to the record number of property acquisitions by Argentines in the United States, especially in the Miami area.

• Wednesday, July 17th 2013 - 07:31 UTC

  Bolivia violated military aircraft immunity, claims Brazilian Ministry of Defence

  

  Bolivia violated the immunity of a Brazilian Air Force plane which in October 2011 was carrying Defence minister Celso Amorim and with no search warrant proceeded to inspect the aircraft suspecting opposition Senator Roger Pinto might be on board, claimed Brazilian authorities.

• Wednesday, July 17th 2013 - 07:16 UTC

  Brazilian lawmaker blasts ‘unnecessary hostility and arrogance’ towards Paraguay

  

  An influential member of Congress from south Brazil strongly criticized his country’s foreign policy towards Paraguay and Mercosur condemning the ‘unnecessary hostility’ and for abandoning legitimate interests and basic principles for an ‘ideological affinity solidarity’.

• Tuesday, July 16th 2013 - 23:10 UTC

  Following the Snowden incident, Russia’s secret service orders typewriters

  

  The Kremlin's security agency is buying up typewriters to avoid damaging leaks in a move said to be motivated by the recent US surveillance scandals. Russia's Federal Protective Service, the KGB's successor in charge of protecting President Vladimir Putin and his officials, placed an order for 20 typewriters, according to the state procurement website.

• Tuesday, July 16th 2013 - 21:12 UTC

  American offshore accounts in foreign banks with more than 50.000 dollars have to be reported

  

  The US Treasury Department said it will postpone enforcement of a new law that cracks down on offshore tax avoidance by Americans by six months until July 1, 2014, giving foreign banks more time to determine how to comply.