Politics

• Friday, July 2nd 2010 - 00:44 UTC

  Amnesty blasts Cuba regime for “climate of fear” and 53 prisoners of conscience

  

  Cuba has created a “climate of fear” among political activists and journalists working on the island nation, according to a report released this week by the human rights group Amnesty International.

• Friday, July 2nd 2010 - 00:31 UTC

  Argentina upgrades Tourism to Ministry given its growing economic contribution

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner led the swearing-in ceremony of Enrique Meyer as Minister of the newly created Ministry of Tourism. Meyer was Secretary of Tourism but this week the post was upgraded to Ministry.

• Thursday, July 1st 2010 - 21:05 UTC

  MP Laing, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Gibraltar Group

  

  British Conservative MP Elainor Laing is the new chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Gibraltar Group, a House of Commons spokesman announced Wednesday night. Mrs Laing is no stranger to the Rock as she attended the main National Day rally when it was organised in Casemates Square.

• Thursday, July 1st 2010 - 21:00 UTC

  Meryl Streep considering playing Margaret Thatcher with Director Lloyd

  

  Hollywood Academy Award winning actress Meryl Streep is planning a reunion with her “Mamma Mia!” director, Phyllida Lloyd: Streep is in talks to play controversial former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

• Thursday, July 1st 2010 - 07:22 UTC

  Latinamerica, one of the very few benefiting from Spain’s EU presidency

  

  Spain's ambitious six-month presidency of the EU was eclipsed by the European debt crisis which thrust the country's fragile economy into the global spotlight and weakened the Spanish government, analysts said.

• Thursday, July 1st 2010 - 07:12 UTC

  “This is no soccer match, only both sides must benefit”, says Timerman

  

  Argentina’s Foreign Affairs minister Héctor Timerman cautioned that the dispute with Uruguay over the Botnia/UPM pulp mill and its environmental impact can’t be seen as “a football match where one side wins and the other looses”, but rather as a situation where “the peoples of both countries benefit”.

• Thursday, July 1st 2010 - 06:57 UTC

  Brazilian opposition picks young, fresh face as Vice-president candidate

  

  Congressman Indio da Costa of the opposition Democrats party was named Brazilian presidential candidate Jose Serra’a running mate. The move is geared to retake the initiative in the campaign to October 3 presidential polls which now have incumbent Dilma Rousseff ahead.

• Thursday, July 1st 2010 - 06:46 UTC

  Syria’s Assad in Brazil proposed close economic links with Mercosur

  

  Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on his first-ever tour of Latin America proposed a free trade agreement with Mercosur after meeting Wednesday in Brasilia with his Brazilian counterpart Lula da Silva and giving a conference at the Foreign Ministry seat in Itamaraty Palace.

• Wednesday, June 30th 2010 - 21:04 UTC

  Syria's Latin American connection

  Damascus will continue to maintain ties with the countries south of the US, regardless of Washington's objections

• Wednesday, June 30th 2010 - 20:55 UTC

  Cuban president sacks another (inefficient) minister: Light Industry

  

  Cuban president Raul Castro sacked Light Industry minister Jose Hermandez, the latest of an on-going cabinet reshuffle with the purpose of implanting a policy of import-substitution to address the growing economic crisis.