Politics

• Tuesday, October 23rd 2012 - 21:20 UTC

  Gibraltar, a ‘smokescreen’ to distract Spain’s austerity cuts claims political party

  

  The Spanish leftwing political party Izquierda Unida [IU] has tabled questions in Spain’s parliament asking why Gibraltar continues to be a priority matter for the central government in Madrid.

• Tuesday, October 23rd 2012 - 07:27 UTC

  Brazil will invest 2bn dollars in promoting fishing industry and doubling catches

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff announced on Monday an ambitious program to boost and make competitive the fishing industry doubling catches for which she promised the government would invest 4.1bn Reais (2bn dollars).

• Tuesday, October 23rd 2012 - 06:54 UTC

  BBC faces major scandal for alleged cover-up of sexual abuse by a presenter

  

  The head of the BBC goes before lawmakers on Tuesday with the publicly funded British broadcaster facing one of the biggest crises in its history over accusations it pulled a probe into sexual abuse by a former presenter as part of a wider cover-up.

• Tuesday, October 23rd 2012 - 06:38 UTC

  ARA Libertad: Argentine president pledges to never yield to ‘vulture’ funds

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernández in a national broadcast blasted ‘vulture funds’ retaining the impounded training frigate ARA Libertad in Ghana and pledged never to yield the dignity and sovereignty of the country to these funds.

• Monday, October 22nd 2012 - 19:51 UTC

  Bolivia sells 500m dollars bond with 4.875% yield; first time in ninety years

  

  Bolivia returned on Monday to global credit markets for the first time in almost a century with the launch of 500 million worth of 10-year bonds, reflecting investors' confidence.

• Monday, October 22nd 2012 - 19:20 UTC

  UN Security Council says ARA Libertad incident does not endanger world peace

  

  Argentine Foreign minister Hector Timerman began Monday morning his round of contacts in New York to lobby for the release of the Navy’s training frigate retained in Ghana but suffered a first setback when he met with the president of the UN Security Council, Ambassador Gert Rosenthal.

• Monday, October 22nd 2012 - 18:40 UTC

  Most of ARA Libertad crew should be arriving at Buenos Aires late Wednesday

  

  Argentina confirmed on Monday that most of the crew from the training frigate ARA Libertad retained in Ghana is being evacuated and should arrive in Buenos Aires Wednesday night, in a chartered commercial aircraft. Only a small group of officers and 44 crew members will remain on the impounded vessel for maintenance work.

• Monday, October 22nd 2012 - 06:27 UTC

  Mercosur to skip Paraguay in December and hand rotating chair to Uruguay

  

  Uruguay’s tenure of Mercosur rotating chair will be advanced six months meaning that at the coming summit in December Brazil will hand over the next six-month responsibility to the administration of President Jose Mujica, thus skipping Paraguay which remains suspended from the South American trade group.

• Monday, October 22nd 2012 - 04:45 UTC

  Loyal unions give Argentine government 40 days to raise the income tax floor

  

  The branch of Argentina’s organized labour that supports President Cristina Fernandez gave the government forty days to raise the income tax floor, which with double digit inflation is including an ever increasing number of wage earners.

• Monday, October 22nd 2012 - 04:25 UTC

  ARA Libertad: Timerman at UN for round of contacts beginning with Ban Ki-moon

  

  Argentine Foreign minister Hector Timerman is scheduled to begin on Monday a round of contacts with top United Nations officials to address the issue of the training frigate ARA Libertad, impounded in Ghana.