Politics

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 20:34 UTC

  Crime and violence cost Central American countries 8% of GDP, says World Bank

  

  Growing crime and violence in Central America not only have an immediate human and social toll but they also pose a tremendous threat to development potential in the region since it is estimated that these sources of instability cost 8% of GDP, once health, institutional, private security, and material expenses are accounted for.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 20:04 UTC

  U2 current worldwide tour nets 558m; beats Rolling Stones record

  

  U2's current worldwide 360° tour has become the highest grossing in history, beating the record previously set by The Rolling Stones between the years 2005-2007, reported Live Nation Entertainment.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 19:49 UTC

  China plans to invest 10 billion USD in soy production and processing in Brazil

  

  China plans to invest ten billion US dollars in the production, storage and transport of soybeans in Brazil to ensure the supply of the commodity of which it is the world’s main importer, according to press reports in Beijing.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 19:42 UTC

  EU agriculture ministers meet to address current trade talks with Mercosur

  

  European Union Agriculture ministers will be meeting this week in Luxembourg to discuss the current trade negotiations with Mercosur, according to European Commission sources.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 13:23 UTC

  Falklands names Islander new Mineral Resources Director, beginning 2012

  

  The Falkland Islands has nominated an Islander as new Director of Mineral Resources who will be taking over from Phyl Rendell when she retires as the end of the year, announced the government of the Islands.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 06:29 UTC

  South America military expenditure up 2010, but insignificant in global terms

  

  The region with the largest increase in military expenditure in 2010 was South America, with a 5.8% increase in real terms, reaching a total of 63.3 billion US dollars according to the latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 06:17 UTC

  With Colombia support Venezuela gets temporary extension of Andean membership

  

  Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez agreed over the weekend to temporarily extend the bilateral trade pact within the framework of the Andean Community, or CAN, despite Venezuela’s pending withdrawal from that regional organization on April 21.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:58 UTC

  Mujica strongly lobbies for Venezuela’s full incorporation to Mercosur

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica strongly supported the incorporation of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur from a Sunday column published in one of Brazil’s most influential newspapers, Folha de Sao Paulo.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:54 UTC

  Venezuela’s most populated areas suffer another major blackout

  

  Blackouts blamed on forest fires left without power whole areas of north and central Venezuela, including Caracas, officials said. The power outages began last Thursday due to the collapse of electrical lines located 250 kilometres west of Caracas, Electricity Minister Ali Rodriguez said.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:40 UTC

  Guatemala’s First Couple ‘team’ ready for September’s presidential election

  

  A Guatemalan judge granted the country’s First Couple divorce petition thus opening the way for First Lady Sandra Torres to run in September’s presidential election for which her husband President Alvaro Colom is barred under constitutional rule.