Politics

Monday, July 26th 2010 - 03:47 UTC
Kirchner begins round of contacts to defuse Venezuela/Colombia confrontation

Secretary-general of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) Néstor Kirchner who this week begins a round of contacts indicated that “it hurts that two Latin American countries like Venezuela and Colombia have this level of confrontation” and promised “to work from Unasur so that we can bring the two nations together and not affect the close relationship between their peoples.”
Monday, July 26th 2010 - 03:44 UTC
Piñera rejects Bishops plea to pardon military involved in human rights abuses

Chilean President Sebastian Piñera rejected a plea by the Roman Catholic Church that he pardon members of the armed forces over human rights abuses committed during military rule. Piñera said the proposal had caused division in Chile and reopened old wounds.
Monday, July 26th 2010 - 03:41 UTC
Russian planning massive sale of assets to cover budget deficit

Russia plans the largest sell-off of state assets since the early 1990s as it seeks to raise over 29 billion US dollars to plug budget gaps over the next three years, finance ministry sources told reporters. The plan to sell minority stakes in 10 major companies in 2011-2013 had been discussed and approved at a preliminary meeting chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Monday, July 26th 2010 - 03:32 UTC
With ten weeks left Brazilian presidential race remains technically tied

With only two and a half months left for October 3 presidential election the ruling party candidate, Dilma Rousseff and Jose Serra from the opposition remain in a technical tie according to an opinion poll released over the weekend. The Datafolha poll showed Rousseff with 36% of voter intention against 37% for former Sao Paulo state Governor Serra.
Saturday, July 24th 2010 - 05:24 UTC
Uruguay/Argentina ‘scientific monitoring’ inside pulp mill remains unsolved

Uruguay and Argentina continued on Friday working to reach an agreement for the joint monitoring of the Uruguay River, with the goal of overcoming the long-standing conflict over the Botnia/UPM pulp mill.
Saturday, July 24th 2010 - 05:23 UTC
Colombia insists on a reply to its claims of Venezuelan tolerance with guerrillas

Colombia insisted Friday that no reply has been given yet to “the heart of the matter” in the diplomatic row with Venezuela and those are the claims of ‘tolerated’ Colombian guerrilla presence in Venezuelan territory. Bogotá also recalled that all mediations and dialogue proposals so far have been “unfruitful”.
Saturday, July 24th 2010 - 03:32 UTC
Kirchner with Unasur support to meet Chavez and Uribe early August

Former Argentine president and Union of South American Nations, Unasur chairman Nestor Kirchner will hold talks during early August with the presidents of Venezuela and Colombia in an attempt to mediate an understanding between the two countries, according to reports from the Argentine government news agency Telam.
Saturday, July 24th 2010 - 03:28 UTC
The “Viking”, an “ultra K” next Argentine ambassador in Montevideo

An ‘ultra K’ as the most dedicated supporters of Argentina’s ruling couple Kirchner are identified, will most probably be the next ambassador in Montevideo, according to press reports on both sides of the River Plate.
Saturday, July 24th 2010 - 00:16 UTC
Seven of 91 EU banks failed stress-tests: five from Spain

Seven of the 91 European banks that underwent stress tests have failed the health-checks, the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) has said. They include five Spanish banks - Diada, Espiga, Banca Civica, Unnim and Cajasur. The other two were Germany's Hypo Real Estate and Greece's ATEbank.
Friday, July 23rd 2010 - 23:52 UTC
Spain savings restructure eliminates State Secretary for Ibero-America

The Spanish government approved Friday a sweeping reform of the Ministries of Industry and Foreign Affairs which included the elimination of the State Secretary for Ibero-America.