Politics

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 22:44 UTC

  March-bonus for 7 million low income Chileans, handout in presidential election year

  

  Chilean president Sebastian Piñera signed this week a bill which grants a special ‘March-bonus’ to low-income families and is extensive to seven million people. Each beneficiary will receive the equivalent of 85 dollars which will represent for the Treasury an outlay of 208 million dollars.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 21:33 UTC

  Setback in New York court for Argentina’s strategy in its battle with bond holdouts

  

  A US court in New York on Tuesday rejected Argentina's request for a full-court rehearing of an appeal it lodged as it struggles to shake off holders of 1.3 billion dollars in defaulted bonds.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 21:08 UTC

  Paraguay does not accept Venezuela as the next chair of Mercosur

  

  Paraguay, suspended from Mercosur and Unasur since last June rejected point-blank the possibility that Venezuela takes the chair of the regional trade group as of next June during the summit scheduled to take place in Uruguay.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 20:35 UTC

  Cyprus aftermath: Germans fear about their savings accounts despite ‘Euro-supreme’ Merkel

  

  A majority of Germans doubt Chancellor Angela Merkel's guarantee that their savings accounts are safe, an opinion poll published by Stern magazine and RTL TV showed, six months before the federal election.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 20:25 UTC

  Malvinas: first time Latam groups at UN work together in support of Argentina’s claim

  

  Regional groups from South America for the first time are working together on the Malvinas question at the United Nations in support of Argentina’s claims, said the Peruvian delegate on Tuesday, something which he described as “very positive”.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 05:04 UTC

  Falklands/Malvinas discussions between UK and Argentine lawmakers

  

  Lawmakers from Argentina and the UK attending the 128th Inter-parliamentarian Union assembly held in Ecuador have been holding intense but ‘respectful’ discussions about the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty dispute.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 05:00 UTC

  Bernanke defends low-interest rates arguing they help to boost the global economy

  

  Ben Bernanke has defended the continuing low-interest-rate policies of the US Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe, saying they are helping to boost the global economy. The Fed governor's comments come after some analysts have voiced concern that such low rates are cutting the value of currencies of advanced nations.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 03:17 UTC

  Malvinas question to be addressed with Ban Ki Moon at UN by Timerman and Latam peers

  

  On Tuesday Argentina’s Foreign minister Hector Timerman together with representatives from different Latinamerican and Caribbean organizations are scheduled to meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to address the “Malvinas Islands question”, according to a release from the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 02:00 UTC

  Falklands: Argentina wants to silence referendum results and applies a ‘diplomacy of desperation’

  

  The Falkland Islands said that Argentina’s ‘frantic efforts’ to have the international community ignore the voice of the people of the Falkland Islands is ‘a diplomacy of desperation’ and insisted that the recent referendum results again confirmed that the people of the Falklands have no desire to be governed by Buenos Aires.

• Monday, March 25th 2013 - 05:16 UTC

  EU, ECB and IMF agree on a deal to bailout Cyprus; no Parliament vote

  

  Euro-zone finance ministers have agreed a deal on a 10bn-Euro bailout for Cyprus to prevent its banking system collapsing and keep the country in the Euro-zone. Asian financial markets rose in early trading on news of the deal.