Politics

• Friday, July 12th 2013 - 06:40 UTC

  Right to abort of raped-pregnant 11-year-old triggers major controversy in conservative Chile

  

  A pregnant 11-year-old Chilean girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather should be granted all medical options, including the right to abort, rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday. The pregnancy of 'Belen,' as she is known has sparked an outcry in one of South America’s most conservative countries, where abortion is banned under all circumstances.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 17:02 UTC

  Brazil ups basic rate to 8.5% to combat inflation; markets forecast 9.25%/10% by end of the year

  

  Brazil’s central bank raised the benchmark interest rate a third consecutive time and anticipated that the tightening cycle may be extended through the rest of the year as policy makers fight inflation.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 16:57 UTC

  Brazilian workers on “national struggle day” block the country’s main highways

  

  Tens of thousands of workers across Brazil have walked off their jobs on Thursday in a nationwide strike demanding better working conditions and improved public services. Organized by Brazil’s biggest trade union federations, strikers are partially or completely blocking 17 highways in seven states.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 07:26 UTC

  Summit in Montevideo could further expose the fragility of a Mercosur turned political

  

  President-elect Horacio Cartes will not make any comments on the ongoing dispute of Paraguay with Mercosur until after the group’s summit in Uruguay next Friday, when official decisions on the subject are expected to be made public. However for both sides any decision will most probably be challenging and ratify that Mercosur has become a political group far from its original trade and investment purposes.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 07:14 UTC

  After twenty years of negotiations US opens its market to Uruguayan citrus

  

  After almost twenty years of negotiations United States confirmed the opening of its market to citrus from Uruguay, which will become effective next 9 August when certain coordination and logistics tasks are coordinated by both countries.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 07:04 UTC

  China blesses Taiwan economic accords if ‘one-China’ policy is respected

  

  China accepts that Taiwan signs economic cooperation agreements with other countries as long as they are not political and those countries do not interfere with the ‘one China policy’ which considers the island a province part of the nation, and not two nations as defended by Taipei.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 06:53 UTC

  Time for China to become more Brazilian

  

  By Markus Jaeger (*) - What could China possibly learn from Brazil, economically? After all, real GDP growth in Brazil averaged 2.75% annually over the past three decades, compared to 10% in China. Moreover, Brazil’s consumption-oriented growth model is about to exhaust itself, while China’s investment-focussed strategy continues to generate high, if somewhat diminished economic growth.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 06:43 UTC

  IMF: US pull-back from stimulus could trigger reversal in capital flows and hurt developing countries

  

  The International Monetary Fund trimmed its global growth forecast for the fifth time since early last year due to a slowdown in emerging economies and the woes in recession-struck Europe. In its mid-year health check of the world economy, IMF also warned global growth could slow further if the pull-back from massive monetary stimulus in the United States triggers reversals in capital flows and crimps growth in developing countries.

• Thursday, July 11th 2013 - 01:41 UTC

  Falklands receives €4.13 million in development funds from EU and praise for good governance

  

  Falklands Islands received €4.13 million from the European Union to support sustainable growth through economic diversification under the European Development Fund (EDF) through mid-2013 to early 2016.

• Wednesday, July 10th 2013 - 17:44 UTC

  Falklands: multi-disciplinary plan to help tackle veterans’ trauma

  

  Archaeologists, historians, former service personnel and mental health professionals are meeting in London to discuss a plan to use archaeology to tackle war trauma. The plan is the idea of University of Glasgow academic Dr Tony Pollard and is centred on the Falkland Islands conflict.