Politics

• Friday, August 31st 2012 - 00:42 UTC

  Ecuadorian columnist sentenced to jail and million dollars fine granted asylum in the US

  

  A newspaper columnist who fled Ecuador after he was sentenced to jail and ordered to pay millions of dollars in a libel case pushed by President Rafael Correa has been granted asylum in the United States, his lawyer said on Thursday.

• Thursday, August 30th 2012 - 05:09 UTC

  Chile joins the Colombia/FARC peace talks scheduled to take off in Norway

  

  Cuba will be the permanent seat for the peace dialogue between the government of Colombia and the FARC guerrilla group, talks which will have the support from Norway, Venezuela and Chile according to a broadcasting station from Bogotá.

• Thursday, August 30th 2012 - 04:55 UTC

  Canada confirms Falklands self determination despite lobbying from companies operating in Argentina

  

  The Canadian government reaffirmed its support of the Falkland Islands and their right to self determination, according to a report from the Canadian edition of The Wall Street Journal.

• Thursday, August 30th 2012 - 04:50 UTC

  Correa and Assange, “two of a kind” writes Nobel Prize Vargas Llosa

  

  The Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange are “two of a kind” because of the multiple abuses to freedom of expression committed by both, wrote Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa in one of his weekly columns on current affairs.

• Thursday, August 30th 2012 - 04:43 UTC

  Iran, Venezuela and Egypt, a possible peace troika to address the Syria situation

  

  Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro has welcomed Iran’s proposal for the formation of a troika committee on Syria consisting of Iran, Egypt, and Venezuela

• Thursday, August 30th 2012 - 04:36 UTC

  China and Germany, world’s exporting giants meet in Beijing to discuss Euro-crisis

  

  German leader Angela Merkel is due to hold top-level talks Thursday on her second visit to China this year, with Europe's debt crisis taking centre stage as it begins to drag on the two global powers.

• Thursday, August 30th 2012 - 04:32 UTC

  Brazil cuts benchmark rate for ninth time running to an all time low of 7.5%

  

  Brazil’s central bank cut the benchmark interest rate for the ninth straight time on Wednesday to an all-time low of 7.5%, as policymakers keep up efforts to bolster a slow-moving economy which is the world's sixth-largest.

• Thursday, August 30th 2012 - 04:25 UTC

  Venezuelan refinery ‘cooling down’; independent report points to serious lack of maintenance

  

  Venezuela is carrying out an “exhaustive” inspection of its biggest refinery before attempting to restart processing after extinguishing a four-day fire yesterday caused by an explosion that killed 48 people and left hundreds homeless.

• Thursday, August 30th 2012 - 04:20 UTC

  Brazilian government launches a new round of stimuli to prop consumption

  

  Brazil's government unveiled a host of new measures on Wednesday aimed at increasing investment and consumption as it expanded efforts to boost a sluggish recovery in the world's sixth-largest economy.

• Thursday, August 30th 2012 - 03:50 UTC

  Venezuela investigating alleged massacre of indigenous people in the Amazon

  

  Venezuela announced it is investigating an alleged massacre of indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest, after a tribal group told the government that a village of 80 natives was attacked in July from a helicopter.