Former Miss Bolivia Jessica Jordan, 24, accepted an invitation from President Evo Morales to run for governor of Beni province as a member of his Movement Toward Socialism party in April 4 regional elections.
Around 500 Cuban doctors have defected to the United States while serving on aid missions in Venezuela, according to members of Cuban exile groups in Miami. The latest case occurred this week when seven Cuban physicians managed to leave Caracas’ Maiquetia International Airport, after being held there for several hours and after paying hundreds of dollars each to officials.
Swiss financial regulator FINMA violated the law by authorising UBS to hand over details of 300 clients to US authorities, a Swiss court has ruled.
Anti-whaling activists have asked the Dutch public prosecutor to launch a criminal investigation into a clash between protesters and Japanese whalers in Antarctic waters which led to the sinking of a protest boat.
Martin Redrado was “restored” Friday to his post as President of the Argentine Central Bank following an injunction from Federal Judge María José Sarmiento. Redrado had been removed Thursday by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner through an emergency decree for having resisted releasing 6.6 billion US dollars from the bank’s reserves
US employers unexpectedly cut 85,000 jobs in December, but the unemployment rate held steady at 10%, official figures have shown. The number of job losses was surprising, particularly after November's figures had been revised.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown in his New Year message reaffirmed UK sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and “the principle of self determination that underlies it”, emphasizing there will be “no negotiations (with Argentina) on the Islands sovereignty unless and until such a time as the Islanders wish”.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her cabinet signed Thursday a disputed decree removing Central Bank President Martin Redrado from office amid a fight over the use of bank reserves to pay debt due this year.
Japan's newly appointed finance minister Naoto Kan has called for a weaker yen in order to aid the recovery of the Japanese economy. Speaking the day after his appointment, Mr Kan said it would be nice to see the currency weaken.
Gibraltar Chief Minister Peter Caruana said this week that the biggest challenge of all in 2009 was that over the sovereignty of Gibraltar’s waters represented by Spain’s designation of areas of these as an EU environmental protection zone, and the EU Commission inclusion of it in the official EU list.