Politics

• Thursday, February 18th 2010 - 21:36 UTC

  Argentina looking for mainland business links of Falkland oil companies

  

  The Argentine government is looking into the British oil companies involved in the Falkland Islands exploratory drilling operation checking on their possible links to interests in Argentina (and if so the infringement of legislation of Argentine legislation), according to reports in the Buenos Aires press.

• Thursday, February 18th 2010 - 13:48 UTC

  Argentine consumers expect inflation in next 12 months to reach 30%

  

  Argentines expect consumer prices to rise 31.1% over the next 12 months, led by higher forecasts from the lower income category, according to the average estimate in a poll from Torcuato Di Tella University.

• Thursday, February 18th 2010 - 01:17 UTC

  Argentine protests Falklands oil drilling before the Rio Group and UN

  

  Argentina will be pressing next Monday for support from Latinamerica and the Caribbean, and on Wednesday at United Nations, in its dispute over the oil drilling round about to being in the Falkland Islands.

• Thursday, February 18th 2010 - 00:06 UTC

  Uruguayan main opposition leader praises pragmatism of president elect

  

  Uruguay’s opposition main leader and former president Luis Alberto Lacalle (1990/1995) praised the pragmatism of president elect and former guerrilla leader Jose Pepe Mujica who will be taking office next March first.

• Wednesday, February 17th 2010 - 23:55 UTC

  Greece defends controversial debt-swaps masterminded by Goldman Sachs

  

  Greece has defended a controversial deal that may have masked the extent of its budget woes and has annoyed the European Union. The 2001 debt-swap deal with Goldman Sachs was legal under EU rules, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told the Greek parliament.

• Wednesday, February 17th 2010 - 23:47 UTC

  Chilean president-elect criticizes Castro and reaffirms support of Peru, Bolivia

  

  Chile’s President-elect Sebastian Piñera affirmed that his government will strongly defend human rights once taking power on March 11 by giving much more attention to Cuba than did his predecessors from the centre-left Concertacion coalition.

• Wednesday, February 17th 2010 - 17:01 UTC

  Falklands drilling will go ahead despite Argentine shipping movement ‘decree’

  

  DRILLING in Falklands waters will go ahead as planned despite an Argentine decree aimed at handicapping shipping movement between the Islands and South America. From London British Foreign and Commonwealth Minister Chris Bryant reiterated that “we have no doubt about our sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and we're clear that the Falkland Islands Government is entitled to develop a hydrocarbons industry within its waters”.

• Wednesday, February 17th 2010 - 03:24 UTC

  Mrs. Kirchner calls UN to force UK to Falklands’ sovereignty negotiations

  

  Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner defended her decision to place stronger controls on navigation and shipping within the Falklands called on the United Nations to force the United Kingdom to come through on negotiations over the sovereignty of that territory.

• Wednesday, February 17th 2010 - 03:05 UTC

  Seventy journalists killed in 2009, the worst in thirty years, says CJP

  

  Seventy journalists were killed in 2009, making it the worst year since records began 30 years ago, the Committee to Protect Journalists says. A massacre of 31 journalists in the Philippines broke the old record of 67 deaths, set only in 2007.

• Wednesday, February 17th 2010 - 02:58 UTC

  Power strapped Venezuela rejects Colombian supply offer

  

  President Hugo Chavez's government said it is not interested in buying electricity from neighbouring Colombia despite Venezuela's struggles with severe energy shortages.