Politics

• Monday, February 7th 2011 - 19:50 UTC

  British PM David Cameron “the doctrine of state multiculturalism has failed”

  

  Britain’s Prime Minister identified segregation and separatism as key issues behind the threat of Islamic extremism and called for a “shared national identity”.
  Speaking at the Munich Security Conference PM Cameron stressed the difference between Islam as a religion and Islamic extremism as a political ideology, and said that Western countries need to confront extremism rather than practice a “hands-off tolerance”.

• Monday, February 7th 2011 - 18:22 UTC

  Toledo consolidates as main candidate for Peru’s presidential election in April

  

  Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo has extended his lead ahead of 10 April’s presidential election with Keiko Fujimori possibly disputing the second round, according to a public opinion poll by Lima-based Datum International.

• Monday, February 7th 2011 - 18:07 UTC

  US condemns South American/Arab leaders summits, say Wikileaks cables

  

  Brazilian policy towards Middle East and the Arab world harm US strategy in the region according to US embassy diplomatic cables between 2004 and 2009, recently exposed by Wikleaks.

• Monday, February 7th 2011 - 16:41 UTC

  High level talks with Chile for a Pacific outlet for landlocked Bolivia

  

  Chile and Bolivia begin talks Monday in La Paz on a 13 point agenda agreed in 2006 and which among other issues includes the landlocked country’s aspiration to recover its outlet to the Pacific lost during a regional war in 1879.

• Monday, February 7th 2011 - 14:09 UTC

  “The show must go on” promise Rio Carnival groups in spite of blaze

  

  A fire has broken out in the carnival district, Samba city, of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, destroying warehouses where floats are made, reports say. At least four warehouses, a samba school and a carnival museum have been damaged in the blaze at Samba City.

• Monday, February 7th 2011 - 14:06 UTC

  Rio do Janeiro police take hold of favelas in early operation with no shots fired

  

  Rio do Janeiro police with the support of the Navy, other security agencies and armoured personnel vehicles in an flash operation on Sunday occupied nine “favelas,” or shantytowns dominated by drug gangs and did so “without a single shot,” officials said.

• Sunday, February 6th 2011 - 21:29 UTC

  Brazil and UK ready to sign huge defence contract, say media reports

  

  Brazil with a defence market described as “one of the fastest growing in the world” will be signing a defence agreement with the UK which should open the way for a deal worth “billions of dollars”, according to reports in the Brazilian and UK media.

• Sunday, February 6th 2011 - 21:02 UTC

  Geithner visits Brazil to discuss economic and financial cooperation

  

  United States Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will visit Monday Brazil to discuss economic cooperation. Geithner is scheduled to return on the same day.

• Sunday, February 6th 2011 - 20:38 UTC

  Inflation, an old scourge, plagues Argentina again, says NY Times

  

  Argentina is in the midst of a consumption boom, but inflation that old Argentine plague, has once again fully surfaced, writes the New York Times Alexi Barrionuevo from Buenos Aires.

• Sunday, February 6th 2011 - 19:30 UTC

  Unilateral facts, indeed

  

  By Andrés Cisneros for the Herald
  
  Peter Pepper and Graham Pascoe, who have spent years writing profusely on the issue, have just written a new article seeking to enlighten us on Malvinas rights.