Politics

• Monday, August 29th 2011 - 08:34 UTC

  Brazil loosing industry to Mercosur members with cheaper costs and lower taxes

  

  Brazilian business and manufacturing leaders are demanding a “fiscal harmonization” of the Mercosur block since other full members are attracting a growing number of Brazilian companies to those countries lured by cheap energy and qualified labour.

• Monday, August 29th 2011 - 08:31 UTC

  Latin American central banks ready to reverse policy and cut interest rates

  

  Latin America’s central banks are coming to the end of steep rises in borrowing costs as the global economic outlook darkens and some are starting to consider policy loosening and interest rate cuts.

• Monday, August 29th 2011 - 08:26 UTC

  MPs criticize “offensive” comedy on Lady Thatcher and ‘Falklands’ obsession’

  

  A new “grossly offensive” comedy on Channel 4 portraying Lady Thatcher as a sex-starved Falklands War obsessive, and mocking her frail mental health, has been criticised by MP's.

• Monday, August 29th 2011 - 03:35 UTC

  Piñera pledges to clarify events surrounding killing of teenager during mass protests

  

  Chilean President Sebastian Piñera pledged Sunday to get to the bottom of the killing of a teen during a mass protest as student leaders agreed to meet with the president on their grievances.

• Monday, August 29th 2011 - 03:27 UTC

  Five Falklands’ athletes to compete at Commonwealth Youth Games

  

  The Falkland Islands will be represented with five athletes and four officials in the 4th Commonwealth Youth Games begin to be held in the Isle of Man September 8th to 12th 2011. The delegation will be headed by Falkland Islands Overseas Games Association, (FIOGA) chair Mike Summers.

• Monday, August 29th 2011 - 02:51 UTC

  Third round of chemotherapy for Chavez, but this time in Venezuela

  

  President Hugo Chavez will undergo a third round of chemotherapy for cancer at home in Venezuela beginning Monday, he said, instead of travelling to Cuba where he had two previous rounds of treatment.

• Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:31 UTC

  Argentine president campaigns in farm heartland not so long ago ‘enemy territory’

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner made on Friday a deep incursion into the province of Buenos Aires farmland where she headed the inauguration of a railway line which will reactivate the train service connecting twenty towns in the area.

• Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:28 UTC

  Piñera yields and calls on students and teachers to a round of negotiations

  

  After three months of mass protests that provoked a sharp drop in his popularity, Chilean President Sebastian Piñera agreed Friday to negotiate with students and teachers demanding more state funding for education and profound changes in government.

• Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:25 UTC

  Ex IMF chief is given back passport and can travel a free man

  

  Dominique Strauss-Kahn was given back his passport on Thursday, his legal team said, clearing the way for the former IMF head to travel abroad for the first time since his arrest three months ago on sex crime charges.

• Saturday, August 27th 2011 - 07:21 UTC

  Mexico demands crackdown on drugs in the US following casino carnage

  

  Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared three days of mourning Friday and demanded a crackdown on drugs in the United States after armed men torched a casino in northern Mexico, killing at least 65 people.