Politics

• Tuesday, January 17th 2012 - 07:00 UTC

  Brazil economy rebounds in November boosted by domestic consumer spending

  

  Brazil’s economy grew at its fastest pace in 19 months in November, reversing a three-month contraction, as a recovery in consumer spending helped Latin America’s largest economy shrug off a global slowdown. Yields on interest rate futures rose.

• Tuesday, January 17th 2012 - 06:44 UTC

  S&P downgrades the European Stability Facility but willing to reconsider

  

  Credit ratings agency Standard and Poor’s downgraded the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) from “AAA” to “AA+,” although it does not rule out it would increase it again if it bolsters its funds, according to a communiqué released on Monday.

• Tuesday, January 17th 2012 - 06:41 UTC

  Argentine government and Moyano try to set ground rules for future relationship

  

  In another round of the ongoing battle between the Argentina government and the leader of organized labour Hugo Moyano, Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo stated that “if the union leaders are really representatives of the working class, there is no possibility of a divorce between the CGT Labour Confederation and the national government”.

• Monday, January 16th 2012 - 19:32 UTC

  Falklands’ conflict gunner meets Skyhawk pilot he shot down, at his home in Argentina

  

  A Royal Navy veteran from the Falklands War has completed an extraordinary journey to meet the Argentine pilot he thought he had shot down and killed during the 1982 conflict.

• Monday, January 16th 2012 - 19:29 UTC

  Landless peasants with 80 families occupy and take over farm in north of Uruguay

  

  The landless peasants’ movement has reached Uruguay: the self called “shaggy” ones with eighty families, have taken over a 400 hectares farm in the extreme north of the country Artigas, and have been occupying the land since.

• Monday, January 16th 2012 - 19:20 UTC

  Minister recalls Captain Scott’s South Pole feat and heralds work of UK polar scientists

  

  On the eve of the centenary of Royal Navy Captain Robert Scott reaching the South Pole, Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham has heralded the work of British polar scientists in helping to shape the understanding needed for managing climate change and contributing to the UK’s work for the peaceful protection of Antarctica.

• Monday, January 16th 2012 - 19:19 UTC

  Gibraltar cancels stamp issue with Israel considered ‘politically unstable’ by London

  

  The former GSD government cancelled plans to issue a stamp with Israel because the design was ‘politically unacceptable’ to the UK. The stamp was to be released by the postal services of Gibraltar and Israel and carried an image of the Rock on one half and the King David citadel on the other.

• Monday, January 16th 2012 - 07:32 UTC

  Latin America focused on trade and development, not the Falklands, says Hague

  

  UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said that it is important to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Falkland Islands conflict, but aside from some sabre rattling from Argentina, the rest of Latin America is interested in trade and development.

• Monday, January 16th 2012 - 07:28 UTC

  Hague this week becomes the first Foreign Secretary in six years to visit Brazil

  

  This week William Hague becomes the first Foreign Secretary in six years to travel to Brazil. Hague was scheduled to visit Brazil last year, but was prevented by the swiftly-moving events of the Arab Spring and in that time Brazil overtook Britain to become the sixth largest economy in the world.

• Monday, January 16th 2012 - 07:24 UTC

  New Guatemala president pledges ‘mano dura’ against crime and insecurity

  

  Retired army Gen. Otto Perez Molina was sworn in as Guatemala's president Saturday, pledging to take a tough stand on crime amid growing insecurity in the Central American nation.