Politics

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 23:12 UTC

  Paraguayan president confirms Mercosur/EU trade agreement is top of the agenda

  

  Conditions are ready to reach in the short term a trade agreement with the European Union, said Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo whose country, and for the next six months, holds the pro tempore chair of the South American block.

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 23:04 UTC

  IMF anticipates ‘soft-landing’ of Uruguay’s economy in next two years

  

  The International Monetary Fund said economic growth in Uruguay will probably slow over the next two years, requiring policy makers to prepare for a “soft landing.”

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 22:38 UTC

  WikiLeaks claims worst attacks are from in Dubai, US, UK and Switzerland

  

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said his organisation had come under attack not so much from governments but from banks as he vowed to release damaging leaks about them.

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 22:28 UTC

  Uruguay, only “full democracy”• in South America; ranks 21 world-wide

  

  Uruguay is South America’s leading democracy and ranks 21 internationally according to The Economist Intelligence Unit, which makes an annual evaluation of democratic conditions.

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 07:17 UTC

  Mercosur after closer trade relations with Cuba, Palestine, Syria and NZ

  

  Member nations of Mercosur will seek to boost economic and political ties with Cuba in a bid to make the island an associate member of the trade bloc.

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 07:11 UTC

  Mercosur condemns UK on Malvinas; promises to monitor shipping in support of oil activities

  

  The Mercosur summit approved Thursday a declaration protesting “formally and energetically” UK’s decision to hold military exercises in the Malvinas islands and reiterated support for Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the South Atlantic Islands.

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 07:09 UTC

  Chile could be next country to recognize Palestine with borders prior to 1967

  

  The decisions by the governments of Brazil and Argentina last week to recognize an independent Palestinian state with borders prior to the 1967 Six Day War has prompted criticism from the United States and intense lobbying in Santiago de Chile.

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 07:05 UTC

  Euro zone agrees (strict conditionality) bail out permanent mechanism

  

  European Union leaders have agreed to set up a permanent mechanism to bail out any member state whose debt problems threaten the 16-nation Euro zone.

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 07:01 UTC

  Asia’s emerging giants move closer; agree trade goal of 100 billion USD by 2015

  

  India and China agreed to raise the bilateral trade to 100 billion US dollars by 2015, step up investments and permit banks of other countries to open branches and representative offices.

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 06:56 UTC

  WikiLeaks Assange free on bail and tagged moves to ten bedroom mansion

  

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted bail Thursday by the High Court in London and will move from a prison cell in Wandsworth to a country retreat in Norfolk when he is released from custody.