Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen defied mounting pressure to quit and announced Monday he would stay in office until parliament passed an austerity budget needed to secure an IMF/EU bailout and then call an early election.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez announced he would again run for office in 2012 underlining that “there’s no turning back” from the current “Bolivarian revolution” process which he has been leading for the last twelve years.
The chief of the International Air Transport Association or IATA sharply criticized the poor condition of Brazil airports, saying that the situation could put the country in a very bad light during the World Cup and the Olympic Games if the government does not improve capacity and renovate aging infrastructure.
Brazil’s President-elect Dilma Rousseff plans to maintain the central bank’s operational autonomy and also will keep the position of central bank president as a Cabinet-level post, according to reliable sources close to the leader.
Bolivian President Evo Morales delivered a blunt reply on Monday to visiting US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates's warning about dealings with Iran, saying Bolivia will ally with whomever it wants.
Trade among Latinamerican countries is expected to increase 22% during 2010, which is higher than forecasted, according to the UN Economic Commission for Latinamerica and the Caribbean, Cepal. This follows a drop of 0.9% in 2009 when the full impact of the global crisis.
The European Union Mercosur trade agreement is still far from becoming a reality and the coming Ibero-American summit in Mar del Plata early December is not expected to signal any significant achievement in this field, according to Spanish political analysts who anticipate some advances towards the end of next year.
European Union leaders and President Barack Obama over the weekend made a point of stressing EU/US close ties after a low-key summit in Lisbon ended with a pledge to push for a deal in the Doha trade negotiation next year.
The Brazilian navy is planning to build and incorporate in the next decades a fleet of six nuclear powered and 20 conventional submersibles (15 new and five refurbished), making it the most dissuasive fleet of South America.
Hundreds of cities, towns and villages throughout Brazil commemorated Saturday Black Consciousness Day with different festivities and cultural activities. Brazil is considered the second Black Country in the world behind Nigeria, with 75.8 million African-Brazilians and is still exposed to the consequences of racial discrimination.