Politics

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 13:23 UTC

  Falklands names Islander new Mineral Resources Director, beginning 2012

  

  The Falkland Islands has nominated an Islander as new Director of Mineral Resources who will be taking over from Phyl Rendell when she retires as the end of the year, announced the government of the Islands.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 06:29 UTC

  South America military expenditure up 2010, but insignificant in global terms

  

  The region with the largest increase in military expenditure in 2010 was South America, with a 5.8% increase in real terms, reaching a total of 63.3 billion US dollars according to the latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 06:17 UTC

  With Colombia support Venezuela gets temporary extension of Andean membership

  

  Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez agreed over the weekend to temporarily extend the bilateral trade pact within the framework of the Andean Community, or CAN, despite Venezuela’s pending withdrawal from that regional organization on April 21.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:58 UTC

  Mujica strongly lobbies for Venezuela’s full incorporation to Mercosur

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica strongly supported the incorporation of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur from a Sunday column published in one of Brazil’s most influential newspapers, Folha de Sao Paulo.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:54 UTC

  Venezuela’s most populated areas suffer another major blackout

  

  Blackouts blamed on forest fires left without power whole areas of north and central Venezuela, including Caracas, officials said. The power outages began last Thursday due to the collapse of electrical lines located 250 kilometres west of Caracas, Electricity Minister Ali Rodriguez said.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:40 UTC

  Guatemala’s First Couple ‘team’ ready for September’s presidential election

  

  A Guatemalan judge granted the country’s First Couple divorce petition thus opening the way for First Lady Sandra Torres to run in September’s presidential election for which her husband President Alvaro Colom is barred under constitutional rule.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:18 UTC

  Santos and Chavez meet Lobo and agree on helping Honduras return to the OAS

  

  The presidents of Colombia, Venezuela Juan Manuel Santos and Hugo Chavez held a non announced meeting with their Honduran peer Pofirio Lobo and said they were committed to help the outcast country rejoin the Latin American family by returning to the Organization of American States, OAS.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:07 UTC

  China posts surprise quarterly trade deficit of 1.02 billion USD, first in six years

  

  China on Sunday reported a surprise quarterly trade deficit of 1.02 billion US dollars, the first in six years as it settles to rebalance its export oriented economy to boost domestic consumption in the next five years.

• Monday, April 11th 2011 - 05:00 UTC

  Peruvian presidential election has a winner, a run off date but no runner-up, yet

  

  Former army officer and politically nationalist Ollanta Humala won the most votes in Peru’s presidential elections, though will need to wait for full results to know who he’ll face in a June runoff.

• Saturday, April 9th 2011 - 07:55 UTC

  US Congress reaches agreement on budget deal to fund government

  

  United States congressional leaders have agreed on a budget deal to fund the US government for the rest of the fiscal year, just before a midnight deadline. It will reportedly cut 39 billion USD from the budget over last year's levels between now and 30 September.