Politics

• Tuesday, April 5th 2011 - 09:42 UTC

  IMF begins to work in Argentina in the elaboration of a new cost of living index

  

  International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff arrived Monday at Argentina’s Statistics Bureau, Indec headquarters in Buenos Aires to meet with its chief Ana María Edwin and its Director Norberto Itzcovich and begin the elaboration of a new cost of living index.

• Tuesday, April 5th 2011 - 09:36 UTC

  Timerman begins visit to Israel denying any secret dealings with Iran

  

  Argentina’s Foreign Affairs Minister Héctor Timerman began his first official trip to Israel and denied offering to “forget” Iran's role in attacks against Israel's Embassy in BA and AMIA Jewish Community Centre in exchange for improved trade ties with Teheran.

• Tuesday, April 5th 2011 - 09:28 UTC

  Rousseff expects to have a Truth Commission working by the end of 2011

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff trusts a Truth Commission can be set up and working before the end of the year to investigate crimes and human rights abuses committed during the military dictatorship which extended from 1964 to 1985.

• Tuesday, April 5th 2011 - 09:25 UTC

  US government and Republicans clash over legal debt limit and budget cuts

  

  United States will reach its 14.29 trillion US dollars legal debt limit no later than May 16 unless Congress acts before then, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said on Monday warning of “severe hardship” if lawmakers fail to act.

• Tuesday, April 5th 2011 - 09:18 UTC

  Crude at highest in 30 months pushed by US recovery and political turbulence

  

  Oil climbed to the highest level in 30 months in New York on Monday on speculation that US economic growth may support demand and a protracted conflict in Libya will curtail supply.

• Tuesday, April 5th 2011 - 08:53 UTC

  Brazil’s Vale yields to government pressure names new CEO

  

  Brazilian mining giant Vale, the world's biggest producer of iron ore, has chosen a new chief executive. Former Vale executive Murilo Ferreira will return to the company on 22 May.

• Tuesday, April 5th 2011 - 08:50 UTC

  The Malvinas issue is putting “UN to test” on disputes among its members

  

  Argentine ambassador Jorge Argüello said that “when we talk about Malvinas, we’re talking about the oldest sovereignty dispute of modern times. And Malvinas is putting United Nations to test for solving dispute among countries”.

• Monday, April 4th 2011 - 07:17 UTC

  Mujica promises businessmen economic policy to remain on course and reliable

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica ratified this weekend before 1.200 businesspeople that his administration will keep the course and ‘reliability’ of the current economic policy, although this will not impede “changes that may surface consequences of the moment”.

• Monday, April 4th 2011 - 07:14 UTC

  President Barack Obama expected to announce this week re-election plans

  

  Barack Obama is likely to announce plans next week to run for re-election and file campaign papers with the Federal Election Commission as early as Monday, a Democratic official said.

• Monday, April 4th 2011 - 06:57 UTC

  “London and New York, two biggest laundries of criminal and drug money”

  

  Martin Woods, a former senior anti-money laundering officer at the London office of Wachovia Bank says that New York and London have become the world's two biggest laundries of criminal and drug money, and offshore tax havens.