Politics

• Wednesday, January 20th 2010 - 12:49 UTC

  Lula da Silva announces campaign to promote protégé Dilma Rousseff

  

  With less that a year for presidential elections Brazilian leader Lula da Silva announced a spree of “public works inaugurations” until April, with the purpose of promoting the candidacy of his cabinet chief Dilma Rousseff.

• Wednesday, January 20th 2010 - 12:41 UTC

  Cruise industry joins relief effort by continuing to visit unaffected Haiti resorts

  

  Luxury cruise ships will continue to dock as normal at an idyllic resort in northern Haiti despite the deadly earthquake a week ago that devastated the Caribbean nation, a cruise company said Tuesday.

• Wednesday, January 20th 2010 - 12:38 UTC

  Brazil promises to find killers of journalist and compensates family

  

  The Inter American Press Association IAPA praised Governor Jaques Wagner from the Brazilian state of Bahia for the enactment of legislation which provides for payment to the widow and children of journalist Manoel Leal de Oliveira murdered in 1998.

• Wednesday, January 20th 2010 - 12:16 UTC

  Mrs. Kirchner cancels trip to China: claims she can’t trust Vice-president

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced Tuesday during a press conference at the Government House that she suspended her business trip to China because she does not trust in Vice-President Julio Cobos, and accused him of trying to “block” the decisions of the Executive Branch.

• Wednesday, January 20th 2010 - 09:06 UTC

  Argentine president travels to China to boost trade and cooperation

  

  Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner will visit China next week as the country is in the middle of a controversy with Congress over a debt repayment plan which would appeal to Central bank resources but has been frozen by the courts.

• Wednesday, January 20th 2010 - 06:59 UTC

  E-Clear-Flyglobespan collapse: £35 million “no longer there”

  

  E-Clear, the company responsible for online ticket sales at the failed Scottish airline Flyglobespan, has been placed into administration. Flyglobespan also had the UK Ministry of Defence contract for the air bridge between Brize Norton and MPA in the Falkland Islands.

• Wednesday, January 20th 2010 - 06:51 UTC

  Paraguay thanks Colombia for help in the release of a kidnapped rancher

  

  The Paraguayan government and the family of a liberated cattle rancher, kidnap victim of an armed group, have thanked Colombia because the aid and intelligence provided for the liberation were “decisive”, announced Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in Bogotá.

• Wednesday, January 20th 2010 - 06:43 UTC

  Venezuela will become Mercosur fifth full member “next March”

  

  Venezuela’s incorporation to Mercosur will be completed next March according to ABN news agency from Caracas. Apparently the formality will take place in the second week of March following the end of the Paraguayan congressional recess.

• Tuesday, January 19th 2010 - 13:57 UTC

  For many Port-au-Prince residents, situation is catastrophic says Red Cross

  

  “Access to shelter, sanitation, water, food and medical care remains extremely limited,” said Riccardo Conti, the International Committee of the Red Cross, CRC head of delegation in Haiti.

• Tuesday, January 19th 2010 - 13:45 UTC

  Argentina/Brazil review bilateral trade in February

  

  Argentina and Brazil will be meeting early February in Buenos Aires to assess how bilateral trade has been evolving and to plan the following steps to keep improving trade relations between Mercosur senior members.