Politics

• Wednesday, January 11th 2012 - 06:27 UTC

  Brazil runs the risk of becoming highly dependent on natural-resources exports

  

  A leading Brazilian economist Edmar Bacha, one of the architects behind the 1994 Plan Real to stabilize Latin America’s largest economy said the country was at risk of becoming entirely dependent on natural resources exports and urged greater savings to invest in diversification.

• Wednesday, January 11th 2012 - 06:22 UTC

  Argentina says no change in Mercosur decision to bar Falklands’ flagged vessels

  

  Argentina in two brief statements said on Tuesday that there has been no change in Mercosur members’ position to bar Falklands’ flagged vessels from the region’s ports and that the United Kingdom admits that such policy has become effective.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 21:57 UTC

  Malvinas recovery for Argentina must become a “Chilean cause”, says former minister

  

  Chilean former Foreign Affairs minister and ambassador before the UN, Juan Gabriel Valdes has called for Chileans to adopt the Argentine sovereignty claim over the Malvinas Islands --disputed with the UK--, as a “Chilean cause”.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 21:09 UTC

  Falklands’ “black gold rush” means a decade of big money, with or without oil

  

  Thirty years after the Falkland Islands conflict, the South Atlantic Islands are the focus of a “black gold rush” as a string of exploration companies seek to be the first to find commercially viable reserves in the region, writes the London Express City & Business.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 15:42 UTC

  UK tells Mercosur it will resist any attempts to coerce the Falklands

  

  The British government said it would resist any attempts to coerce the Falkland Islands through economic or other pressures, and revealed it is holding ‘productive discussions’ with Uruguay, Chile and Brazil to ensure trade and commercial links between the Islands and South America are not compromised by political declarations.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 06:02 UTC

  Rockhopper ends Faklands’ 2010/11 exploration round with three oil discoveries

  

  Rockhopper Exploration announced Monday that it has completed its successful round of drillings in Falkland Islands waters with the Ocean Guardian rig.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:56 UTC

  Ortega inaugurates consecutive mandate; opposition fear he could follow Chavez example

  

  Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega takes office for a third time on Tuesday with an ample majority in Congress and in the presence of close allies such as Iran’s Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:53 UTC

  Chavez and Ahmadinejad mock 'US imperialism' and joke about having an atomic bomb

  

  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez lavished each other with praise on Monday, mocked US disapproval and joked about having an atomic bomb at their disposal.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:51 UTC

  With October election in mind Chavez back on the air with “Alo Presidente” program

  

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez resumed on Sunday his weekly television and radio broadcast after a seven-month pause. Chavez's program, Alo Presidente, had been halted while he was receiving treatment for cancer.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:48 UTC

  Brazil to build five new dams in the Amazon but with “oil-rigs” technology

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff signed the decree for the construction of five new hydroelectric dams in the Amazon basin and readies for a renewed attack from domestic and international environmentalists against the project.