Politics

• Friday, March 18th 2011 - 18:29 UTC

  Jobs at top of Latin America agenda

  

  By President Barack Obama
  In recent weeks, we've seen how turmoil and tragedy around the globe can affect our own prosperity and security; how events abroad often have implications for everything from markets on Wall Street to families' wallets on Main Street. And as a nation, we will continue to do everything we can both to promote stability and democracy in the Middle East and help the people of Japan recover from the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

• Friday, March 18th 2011 - 16:46 UTC

  EU/Mercosur negotiations stumble, but both sides determined to continue

  

  The fourth round of European Union/Mercosur negotiations for a trade agreement concluded in Brussels Friday with no major advances which could be a setback for the original plan to have a deal sealed by the end of the year.

• Friday, March 18th 2011 - 04:05 UTC

  US, UK, France prepare to implement UN Security Council no-fly zone over Libya

  

  United States President Barack Obama called his British and French counterparts on Thursday and the three agreed Libya must comply with a new U.N. Security Council resolution, the White House said.
  Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy also agreed that violence against the civilian population of Libya must cease.

• Friday, March 18th 2011 - 03:55 UTC

  Argentine truckers strike to protest Swiss justice investigation of their leader

  

  Argentina’s powerful truck drivers’ union called for a strike to be held on Monday to show their support to the head of the CGT Labour confederation, Hugo Moyano and his family that are being investigated in Switzerland for alleged money laundering.

• Friday, March 18th 2011 - 03:45 UTC

  Wikileaks: Argentina’s self centred attitude almost had her thrown out of G20

  

  Disappointed and shocked with the self-centred performance of President Cristina Kirchner at the G-20 summit in Washington in 2008, a group of powerful countries seriously considered kicking Argentina out of the industrialized and emerging countries’ Group of Twenty.

• Thursday, March 17th 2011 - 21:05 UTC

  Argentina further tightens the noose on the Falkland Islands

  

  The Argentine senate unanimously approved Wednesday a bill that bars companies and persons from participating in hydrocarbons exploration and exploitation activities in the Argentine continental platform (which includes the Falkland Islands), and proscribes fines for infractions and barring periods of time from 5 to 20 years for companies that violate the law.

• Thursday, March 17th 2011 - 18:25 UTC

  Gustavo Coronel: The Four Hotbeds of Corruption in Venezuela

  

  Hugo Chavez became president of Venezuela in 1998 on the strength of his promises to stamp out corruption. Venezuela had been a democratic showcase for the hemisphere from 1958 to the early 1970’s but after receiving a huge oil income in the mid-1970 the quality of government deteriorated and waste and corruption set in. By 1998 most Venezuelans were deeply disappointed and wanted a radical change. They got it with Hugo Chavez. What they never imagined was that the change would be for the worse.

• Thursday, March 17th 2011 - 18:14 UTC

  Argentine Congress confirms Mercosur/Israel free trade agreement

  

  The Argentine congress ratified this week the free trade agreement between Mercosur and Israel. The accord subscribed in 2007 and already passed by the Senate, was approved in the Lower House by 144 votes, 8 nays and 10 abstentions.

• Thursday, March 17th 2011 - 18:10 UTC

  Mercosur 20th birthday celebration reprogrammed because of Brazil’s absence

  

  The program of events to celebrate the 20 years of the Treaty of Asunción, the founding block of Mercosur (26 March 1991) will have to be rescheduled because Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff won’t be travelling to Paraguay next 26 March.

• Thursday, March 17th 2011 - 18:04 UTC

  China will finance and build 20.000 housing units in Venezuela

  

  Venezuela signed an agreement with Chinese companies Citic Group and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. to negotiate a 4 billion US dollars loan to finance oil and construction projects, President Hugo Chavez said in Caracas.