Politics

• Sunday, June 13th 2010 - 01:27 UTC

  Major low-cost airline servicing the Caribbean grounded over pay contract

  

  Hundreds of pilots for Spirit Airlines, which services the Caribbean, walked off their jobs early Saturday morning after negotiations over pay broke down. In what industry analysts say is the first strike at a US passenger airline in nearly five years, pilots at the low-cost carrier took industrial action as negotiations reached a stalemate.

• Sunday, June 13th 2010 - 01:20 UTC

  In the even of Vatican top official visit, Cuba frees paraplegic political dissident

  

  The Cuban government has freed a jailed dissident and moved six others to jails closer to their homes. Senior Catholic clergymen had urged Cuban president Raul Castro to release Ariel Sigler, 47, on humanitarian grounds.

• Sunday, June 13th 2010 - 01:18 UTC

  Chavez’ Venezuela “recalls us the times of our won dictatorship`”

  

  The incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur faces a tough battle in the Paraguayan congress following statements’ from the Upper House president who said that “it recalls us the time of the (Alfredo Stroessner) dictatorship” adding it was difficult to dissociate the country from the figure of Hugo Chavez.

• Saturday, June 12th 2010 - 04:54 UTC

  Argentine ministers call on pickets to abandon roadblock leading to Uruguay

  

  Argentine ministers went public again on Friday to insist that there are no excuses left for keeping a roadblock on a bridge leading to neighbouring Uruguay, a long standing protest since 2006 against the construction of the Botnia pulp mill.

• Saturday, June 12th 2010 - 04:51 UTC

  Uruguay targeting a US dollar at 21/22 Pesos to help exporters

  

  Uruguay will take ‘all the necessary measures’ to target the US dollar at 21/22 Pesos, its equilibrium point to help boost exports, according to Deputy Minister of Economy Pedro Buonomo.

• Friday, June 11th 2010 - 23:16 UTC

  Catholic Church expects more gestures from Raul Castro on political prisoners

  

  Cuban Catholic church said this week that it expects the government of Raul Castro to make more gestures favouring political prisoners, although it added that in that “process” no fixed dates have been set for particular actions.

• Friday, June 11th 2010 - 23:13 UTC

  Hispanics become US largest minority: 15.8% of total population

  

  The size of the United States Hispanic community grew by 3.1% in 2009 to 48.4 million people, or 15.8% of the total population, the largest minority in a country that is ever more diverse, the Census Bureau said Thursday.

• Friday, June 11th 2010 - 23:08 UTC

  Buenos Aires City Mayor fined for riding a motorcycle without a helmet

  

  Buenos Aires City Traffic Safety Committee confirmed that City Mayor Mauricio Macri has been fined for having ridden on a motorcycle without a helmet.

• Friday, June 11th 2010 - 20:55 UTC

  Positive outlook for the Argentine economy according to international bank

  

  Argentine stocks are poised to a boost from a likely decline in the nation’s credit risk by year-end and the presidential elections in 2011, according to analysts from Spain’s Banco Santander, one of the leading financial institutions in Latinamerica.

• Friday, June 11th 2010 - 17:13 UTC

  Paraguay admits pressure from Brazil to vote for Venezuela’s Mercosur incorporation

  

  Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo admitted he called on Congress to reach a consensus to vote the incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur, since Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have already done so and ‘only Paraguay is missing’.