Politics

• Monday, December 5th 2011 - 06:51 UTC

  Top Republican claims Obama is losing the Brazil battle to China

  

  The US top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said President Barack Obama is missing opportunities to strike closer ties with Brazil, allowing China to steal market share from US companies in Latin America’s biggest economy.

• Monday, December 5th 2011 - 06:48 UTC

  Mujica calls CELAC “a second independence” but warns beware of dogmatism

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica described the newly formed CELAC as a strong step towards the Americas ‘second independence’ and its integration process.

• Monday, December 5th 2011 - 06:44 UTC

  Crucial week for Euro stability takes off in Paris with Sarkozy-Merkel meeting

  

  French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel meet on Monday in Paris the kick off for a round of talks involving European leaders, the European Central Bank (ECB) and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, culminating in Brussels on Friday with an EU summit.

• Monday, December 5th 2011 - 06:42 UTC

  Havelange, 95, again beats his detractors: he resigns from IOC and end ethics inquiry

  

  Former FIFA president Joao Havelange resigned from the International Olympic Committee on Sunday, just days before he was to face an ethics inquiry it was reported by the Sao Paulo press.

• Monday, December 5th 2011 - 06:39 UTC

  Sixth member of Rousseff’s cabinet resigns amid corruption allegations

  

  Brazil’s Labor and Employment Minister Carlos Lupi resigned Sunday, the sixth Cabinet member to leave President Dilma Rousseff’s government since June amid corruption allegations.

• Monday, December 5th 2011 - 06:09 UTC

  Mujica dressed with a Venezuelan Army jacket triggers a barrage of criticisms

  

  A major controversy exploded in Uruguay when President Jose Mujica was pictured by international news agencies, during the CELAC meeting in Caracas, wearing a green jacket from the Venezuelan Army.

• Monday, December 5th 2011 - 05:29 UTC

  Brazilian press name President Dilma Rousseff “Woman of the Year”

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was elected “Woman of the Year” by one of Brazil’s leading magazines, Istoé, which describes the leader as “one of the most influential persons in the world” who also conducted the country to “a superior level”.

• Monday, December 5th 2011 - 04:11 UTC

  Rajoy will outline his austerity plan before EU Conservative summit

  

  Incoming Conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called on all Spaniards to work together to overcome the debt crisis and promised a new economic policy to deal with unemployment that is more than double the European Union average.

• Monday, December 5th 2011 - 04:06 UTC

  Gibraltar’s Caruana confident of new Spanish government commitment to “trilateral dialogue”

  

  The leader of the ruling GSD in Gibraltar, Peter Caruana said he was confident Spain’s Partido Popular would remain committed to trilateral dialogue, even if not necessarily to the Trilateral Forum (Gib, UK and Spain) itself in its present form.

• Monday, December 5th 2011 - 04:01 UTC

  Cuba’s Revolution square admits the growing presence of the Catholic Church

  

  Hundreds of Cubans paid homage on Saturday to the patron of the country, the Virgin of Copper Charity, at the Plaza de la Revolución (Revolution Square) the political heart of the island and at the precise point where Pope John Paul II in 1998 held a mass to hundreds of thousands.