Politics

• Friday, February 25th 2011 - 01:52 UTC

  Seven Latam countries on track to have credit ratings upgraded

  

  Seven countries in Latin America are on track to have their ratings upgraded in the short term, as the region's credit cycle remains supported by healthy economic growth and greater policy stability, Fitch Ratings said on Thursday.

• Friday, February 25th 2011 - 01:27 UTC

  Chile/Ecuador proposal for a UNASUR Antarctic base

  

  Chile and Ecuador will be proposing their peers of Unasur, (Union of South American Nations) the establishment of a scientific research base in Antarctica, according to Ecuador’s Foreign Affairs minister Ricardo Patiño.

• Friday, February 25th 2011 - 01:04 UTC

  India pledges greater economic cooperation and trade with Uruguay

  

  India pledged on Thursday greater economic cooperation with Uruguay in sectors such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, textiles, automobiles, machineries and IT. In 2009-10, bilateral trade stood at 64.3 million US dollars.

• Thursday, February 24th 2011 - 16:51 UTC

  Gadaffi on state TV by phone call blames Bin Laden for the protests

  

  Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi has told state TV that Osama Bin Laden and his followers are to blame for the protests wracking his country.

• Thursday, February 24th 2011 - 16:44 UTC

  British court agrees to extradite Wikileaks founder Assange to Sweden

  

  A British court has agreed to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to Sweden where he is accused of sex crimes, dismissing claims such a move would breach his human rights.

• Thursday, February 24th 2011 - 16:40 UTC

  Quake’s knock to NZ economy estimated in 9 to 12 billion US dollars

  

  The Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key, says emergency teams in Christchurch are now focusing on recovering bodies, rather than finding survivors of the earthquake.
  He has confirmed that 98 people are known to have been killed in the recent earthquake, and more than 200 others are still missing.

• Thursday, February 24th 2011 - 07:38 UTC

  Spanish fishing vessels abandon Montevideo because of costly labour demands

  

  Fifteen Spanish flagged fishing vessels will no longer operate in Montevideo because labour claims disputes with crew members can include vessel seizures or significant collateral deposits demands by the Uruguayan justice before they can return to sea.

• Thursday, February 24th 2011 - 07:31 UTC

  US/Argentina incident stalled: “we are waiting for a satisfactory response”

  

  After the US Department of State official Philip Crowley tweeted that his country “wanted his (seized) stuff back,” the Argentine Foreign Ministry issued Wednesday a press statement in which it assured that it still awaits “a satisfactory response” to the formal complaint sent to the US embassy.

• Thursday, February 24th 2011 - 06:51 UTC

  Iran ambassador and Palestinians in Chile ‘monitored’ with Israel collaboration

  

  Israeli special defence forces – concerned about what they saw as an increased Iranian presence in South America – collaborated with Chile’s government to monitor “unusual activity” within the Iranian and Palestinian communities, a newly released cable from Wikileaks has shown.

• Thursday, February 24th 2011 - 03:27 UTC

  Argentina insists trade restrictions “in no way represent an obstacle for Mercosur partners”

  

  Argentine Industry Ministry officials assured Wednesday that non-automatic licenses currently being applied to imports “in no way represent an obstacle for our Mercosur partners” and they have been implemented to monitor imports from outside the region.