Politics

• Sunday, September 12th 2010 - 06:41 UTC

  Public debate erupts in UK over the building of two (one?) air carriers

  

  British Ministry of Defence revealed that contracts worth about £1.25bn have been awarded for building two aircraft carriers even though the project may not go ahead, figures have revealed. The figures came in answer to a parliamentary question by a Labour MP.

• Sunday, September 12th 2010 - 06:39 UTC

  Ex Argentine president Kirchner undergoes emergency angioplasty

  

  Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner is back in the Los Arcos hospital with heart trouble. There were no immediate announcements from the government, but according to the local Noticias Argentinas news agency, the husband of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner Fernandez underwent an angioplasty after he was rushed to a clinic in the capital late Saturday night with numbness in his legs.

• Saturday, September 11th 2010 - 19:30 UTC

  Argentine poor legislation and corruption promote trafficking of persons, says UN

  

  United Nations Special Rapporteur on trafficking of persons Joy Ngozi Ezeilo advised Argentine authorities that “an ‘urgent’ reform of the governing law for this crime, whose victims do not have protection or access to justice, is urgently needed”.

• Saturday, September 11th 2010 - 18:28 UTC

  Dilma only waiting for October 3 to become Brazil’s first woman president

  

  With only three weeks left the ruling Brazilian government Workers Party presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff increased her advantage over the main opposition hopeful, former Sao Paulo governor Jose Serra to 23 points, according to the latest opinion polls released by Folha de Sao Paulo the television network O’Globo.

• Saturday, September 11th 2010 - 17:52 UTC

  Kirchner praises Chilean Senate approval of Unasur Constitutive Treaty

  

  Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) Secretary-General, Néstor Kirchner, celebrated the Chilean Senate's approval of the regional organization's Constitutive Treaty and highlighted the “compromise” of Chile with the “unity of South America.”

• Saturday, September 11th 2010 - 17:50 UTC

  Chile’s Catholic willing to help negotiate in Mapuche hunger strike

  

  The Chilean Catholic Church has agreed to help negotiate an end to nearly two-month long hunger strike by indigenous Mapuche prisoners, following an assistance request earlier this week from President Sebastián Piñera

• Saturday, September 11th 2010 - 17:47 UTC

  Fidel Castro’s “no but yes”: comments on Cuban model were “misinterpreted”

  

  Fidel Castro said his recent comment that communist-led Cuba's economic model does not work was misunderstood, and that what he really meant was capitalism does not work.

• Saturday, September 11th 2010 - 17:43 UTC

  Mercosur and Unasur “more effective” for South America than OAS

  

  Mercosur and Unasur (Union of South American Nations) can be “more effective” than OAS (Organization of American States) in addressing issues of South American countries, said Brazilian Foreign Secretary Celso Amorim currently in Switzerland for a conference on international security.

• Friday, September 10th 2010 - 04:31 UTC

  Kirchner cabinet refutes FT report: no IMF revision of Argentine economy

  

  Argentina is still opposed to having its economy reviewed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), government ministers said on Thursday, refuting recent media reports to the contrary.

• Friday, September 10th 2010 - 04:29 UTC

  World Bank calls on governments to protect local land rights from large-scale acquisitions

  

  As rising food and fuel prices create incentives for large-scale land acquisitions around the world, it is more important than ever for governments and the international community to protect local land rights, according to a new World Bank study released this week.