Politics

• Friday, May 18th 2012 - 04:10 UTC

  Brazil’s Supreme Court confirms university quota system for Afro-descendents

  

  Brazil’s Supreme Court voted unanimously to permit a quota system that would favour Afro-descendants in entering universities, ending an eight-year legal battle.

• Friday, May 18th 2012 - 03:58 UTC

  Brazil passes bill to challenge embedded culture of secrecy and bureaucracy

  

  A freedom of information law has taken effect in Brazil, challenging an embedded culture of secrecy and bureaucracy. Proponents, including President Dilma Rousseff, said the measure is nothing short of a revolution for a system that has kept tight control over information for decades.

• Friday, May 18th 2012 - 03:01 UTC

  Argentine farmers blitz stops lawmakers vote on land tax increase

  

  A last-minute lobbying blitz by farmers in Argentina's top grains-producing province stopped lawmakers from approving a tax increase that some growers said would force them to sell their fields.

• Thursday, May 17th 2012 - 21:24 UTC

  Spain supports EU/Mercosur trade accord on a “region to region” basis respecting WTO rules

  

  Spain’s Foreign Affairs minister Jose Garcia Margallo said that Madrid supports negotiations for a free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union on a “region to region” basis, back stepping from his proposal last April to exclude Argentina following the seizure of YPF from Repsol.

• Thursday, May 17th 2012 - 21:19 UTC

  Tax-info-exchange accord could see middle-class Argentines abandon Uruguayan banks

  

  The recent tax-info exchange agreement reached between Argentina and Uruguay will make many investors in the Uruguayan financial system take their deposits back to “safes” or “mattresses” in Argentina, warned several economists during a conference on the Argentine economy prospects and its influence on neighbouring Uruguay.

• Thursday, May 17th 2012 - 11:52 UTC

  Argentine provinces face less revenue and higher rates because of YPF seizure

  

  Argentine provinces are falling back in paying salaries and honouring debts as they face a shortage of cash and almost record rates for issuing bonds in money markets, reports Buenos Aires financial press.

• Thursday, May 17th 2012 - 11:29 UTC

  Falklands recover 370 hectares of Stanley Common made minefields in 1982 by Argentine forces

  

  Thirty years after the end of the Falkland Islands conflict, 370 hectares of Stanley Common south of Sapper Hill recently cleared by BACTEC (mine action and bomb disposal specialists), have been opened to the public, reports the Penguin News.

• Thursday, May 17th 2012 - 11:27 UTC

  The name HMS Dauntless is no newcomer for the Falkland Islands

  

  In anticipation of the imminent arrival in the Falkland Islands of the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless, local historian and author John Allan writes that her predecessor was posted to the Islands in the 1930s.

• Thursday, May 17th 2012 - 10:35 UTC

  Raul Castro daughter’s expected at US university for a lecture on sexology

  

  President Raúl Castro's daughter is scheduled to visit California next week to speak at a conference of experts on Latin America during a rare US trip by a member of Cuba's ruling family.

• Thursday, May 17th 2012 - 10:30 UTC

  Thousands of students take to the streets of Santiago calling for a fairer and quality education

  

  Tens of thousands of students demonstrated on the streets of Chile's capital Wednesday seeking an overhaul of what they call one of the world's priciest and most unfair educational systems.