Politics

• Saturday, May 5th 2012 - 06:38 UTC

  Hollande or Sarkozy, on Monday the Berlin-Paris axis reviews EU austerity policies

  

  Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy made an impassioned final appeal to voters on Friday, saying that a Socialist victory could send France spiraling the way of Greece, as polls showed him narrowing his challenger’s lead two days before the vote.

• Saturday, May 5th 2012 - 06:31 UTC

  A successful oil and gas engineer with global experience, YPF next CEO

  

  A drilling engineer with a long experience in the oil and gas industry Miguel Galuccio, 44, will be taking over as of next Monday as manager of the nationalized YPF corporation, announced on Friday Argentine President Cristina Fernandez.

• Saturday, May 5th 2012 - 06:26 UTC

  Uruguay supports Argentina’s seizure of YPF but countries decide “proceedings”

  

  Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro backed Argentina’s controversial decision to nationalize the country's biggest oil company YPF arguing countries’ right to recover a strategic market is “indisputable”.

• Saturday, May 5th 2012 - 06:22 UTC

  Argentine government ad campaigns increased 25 times since 2003, says Poder Ciudadano

  

  The Argentine government spent 1.225 billion Pesos (307.8 million dollars) in 2010 on public advertising campaigns, an increase of 25 times since 2003, according to a recent study released by Poder Ciudadano, the Argentine national chapter of Transparency International.

• Saturday, May 5th 2012 - 06:09 UTC

  London’s mayor Johnson saves Tories from a humiliating defeat in council elections

  

  Boris Johnson dodged a humiliating nationwide defeat for Prime Minister David Cameron by winning London in local elections that saw voters angry at Britain's economic woes flock to opposition Labour and a right-wing anti-European fringe party.

• Saturday, May 5th 2012 - 01:38 UTC

  IOC criticizes Argentina for involving the Games with politics and Falklands’ dispute

  

  The International Olympic Committee, IOC, criticized on Friday an Argentine television spot that links the London Games to Argentina's sovereignty dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands, calling it a blatant attempt to use the games for political purposes.

• Friday, May 4th 2012 - 21:31 UTC

  Y&R holding condemns Falklands-Olympics spot and asks Argentine government to ban the ad

  

  WPP international advertising holding on Friday regretted a controversial TV spot showing an Argentine athlete training for the London Olympic Games in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands.

• Friday, May 4th 2012 - 17:26 UTC

  Brazil applies radical changes to deposits policy to further cut basic interest rates

  

  Brazil will cut returns on new deposits to savings accounts, thereby paving the way for the central bank to further cut its benchmark lending rate, Finance Minister Guido Mantega announced.

• Friday, May 4th 2012 - 17:21 UTC

  Falklands spot: Argentina trying to recover from “some diplomatic setbacks”, says Hague

  

  British Foreign Secretary William Hague has branded as a stunt an Olympic TV advert by Argentina featuring a hockey player training on the disputed Falkland Islands, described in the broadcast as “Argentine soil”.

• Friday, May 4th 2012 - 17:16 UTC

  Brazil committed to compete with China in Africa for resources and growing market

  

  Brazil pledged major investment and technology transfer to Africa to repay a “solidarity debt” from a country with a huge black population to the poorest but resource-rich continent.