Politics

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 02:47 UTC

  Uruguayan incumbent presidential candidate leads by 6 points in polls

  

  With only ten days for the Uruguayan presidential run-off, incumbent candidate Jose Pepe Mujica leads with 48% vote intention while his rival Luis Alberto Lacalle stands at 42% and the undecided 10%, according to the latest public opinion poll released Thursday by a Montevideo newspaper.

• Thursday, November 19th 2009 - 13:26 UTC

  Russia opens its first embassy ever in Paraguay’s 200 year history

  

  The Russian Federation has formally opened its first embassy in Paraguay’s 200 year history. Although there have been diplomatic relations the Russian ambassador was concurrent from Buenos Aires and only since two decades ago.

• Thursday, November 19th 2009 - 13:23 UTC

  Brazil/Argentina agree trade differences should not influence political relation

  

  Brazil and Argentina ended Wednesday in Brasilia a full day of talks at presidential level without reaching a clear agreement on trade disputes that have caused disruptions to the bilateral relation.

• Thursday, November 19th 2009 - 05:42 UTC

  Israeli president Peres predicts the fall of Chavez and Ahmadinejad

  

  Israel President Shimon Peres predicted on his last day tour of Argentina and Brazil that the people of Venezuela and Iran will make their leaders disappear before too long. Speaking at a forum in Buenos Aires, Peres said both Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have gone crazy over oil, which he said is not bad to sell but “really dangerous if you swallow it.”

• Wednesday, November 18th 2009 - 14:22 UTC

  Honduran Congress will not vote on Zelaya until after the elections

  

  Congress in Honduras will not vote on whether to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya until after elections this month, a senior lawmaker said.

• Wednesday, November 18th 2009 - 14:13 UTC

  The Mujica couple, if confirmed, promise an “austere and sober” government

  

  Senator Lucia Topolansky, who would become Uruguay’s First Lady if her husband and incumbent presidential candidate Jose Mujica is confirmed in the run-off on November 29th promises to keep to an “austere and sober” style of government.

• Wednesday, November 18th 2009 - 13:33 UTC

  Praise for the British press for exposing MP’s expenses scandal

  

  The head of Britain’s Press Complaints Commission has praised the exposure of Members of Parliament expenses claims - and said it showed the vital need to retain press freedom to investigate our “dysfunctional democracy”.

• Wednesday, November 18th 2009 - 09:28 UTC

  Chile in select group of eleven countries with insignificant mad-cow risk

  

  Beginning Tuesday Chile belongs to the select group of eleven countries who have insignificant risk of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. This places Chile among the nations with the best sanitary conditions on the planet.

• Wednesday, November 18th 2009 - 08:23 UTC

  Official media invites Cubans to open their minds and “disagree”

  

  The Cuban Official ruling Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma called on Cubans to open their minds and “disagree”, adding that it was “erroneous to coincide with all opinions” in a community that has been forged on the basis of “commitment and consensus”.

• Wednesday, November 18th 2009 - 08:14 UTC

  Argentina protests world-map circulating in Bolivia with the Malvinas as British

  

  The Argentine embassy in Bolivia officially protested, and demanded the immediate withdrawal of a National Geographic world-map circulating among the Bolivian Chamber of Customs agents and where the Malvinas Islands figure “with a colour different to that identifying Argentina”.