Politics

• Sunday, November 3rd 2013 - 01:12 UTC

  Former Paraguayan president ambassador in Argentina to improve 'Mercosur links'

  

  Former Paraguayan president Nicanor Duarte Frutos is scheduled to arrive this week in Buenos Aires where he will be taking the post of ambassador in Argentina one of the most politically important for the land-locked country.

• Sunday, November 3rd 2013 - 00:42 UTC

  Brazil posted in September its highest primary budget deficit in five years

  

  Brazil posted a primary budget deficit of 9.048 billion Reais (4.1 billion dollars) in September, its biggest in nearly five years and the government reacted announcing a plan of cuts fearing an impact from credit rating agencies.

• Saturday, November 2nd 2013 - 21:03 UTC

  Mujica says Argentina's attitude in Mercosur is 'insular' and shatters integration

  

  Uruguay President José “Pepe” Mujica questioned Argentina’s recent decision to stop freight transfers at ports belonging to Mercosur countries Buenos Aires has no maritime agreements with. Mujica blasted an “insular” position that “shatters” regional integration.

• Saturday, November 2nd 2013 - 15:55 UTC

  Unemployment in Euro-zone remained at record high 12.2% in September

  

  The unemployment rate in the 17-nation Euro-zone remained at a record high of 12.2% in September as the bloc’s recent recovery failed to generate new jobs, official data shows. The number rose by 60,000 to 19.45 million, while the jobless rate for those aged under 25 edged up to 24.1% from 24% in August, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency.

• Saturday, November 2nd 2013 - 15:41 UTC

  “From the ”Labyrinth of Solitude“ to a ”Network of Partnerships”, the new story of Mexico

  

  By R. Viswanathan (*) Octavio Paz, the celebrated Mexican writer who was Ambassador to India in the sixties, wrote in his book “The Labyrinth of Solitude“ that the ”Mexican is always remote from the world and other people”. This was his conclusion after an in-depth analysis of the character and identity of the Mexicans who have inherited a mix of Aztec and Mayan Indian traditions and European culture and have been influenced overwhelmingly by the culture of US.

• Friday, November 1st 2013 - 23:49 UTC

  Falklands government contracts London's fastest growing communications agency

  

  London’s fastest-growing communications agency, Pagefield, has been appointed by the Falkland Islands Government to provide strategic and tactical advice in relation to all public relations and media issues in the UK, following a competitive pitch.

• Friday, November 1st 2013 - 22:31 UTC

  Falklands: Sea Lion research awarded Shackleton's Centenary scholarship

  

  The Centenary Scholarship which marks the 100th Anniversary of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Trans- Antarctic Endurance expedition has been awarded to Dr Alastair Baylis, an Australian scientist, for his sea lion project: “Rediscovering Falklands Ocean Sentinels”.

• Friday, November 1st 2013 - 21:40 UTC

  Argentina warns Barrick on announced suspension of gold mine project

  

  Barrick, the world’s largest gold mining company, is indefinitely suspending construction of its troubled gold mine straddling the Chile-Argentine border, part of a cost-cutting effort that also involves 10 other mining projects around the world.

• Friday, November 1st 2013 - 21:36 UTC

  Dollar-short Venezuela creates new exchange rate system for arriving tourists

  

  Venezuela will create a new exchange rate for tourists to buy up to US$10,000 of the local Bolivar currency per year in a measure intended to help reduce black market trading, the government said in its official gazette.

• Friday, November 1st 2013 - 21:23 UTC

  Britain sleepwalking into becoming a surveillance state, wars MP Hubert

  

  Britain is sleepwalking into becoming a surveillance state, the like of which has never been seen before in peacetime Britain, MPs have been told. Opening a packed Westminster Hall debate on intelligence and the security services, Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert (Cambridge) said there were serious questions to be asked about the extent and scale of intelligence agencies’ activities.