Politics

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 13:31 UTC

  Argentina/Chile seal “historic” integration and cooperation agreement

  

  Argentina and Chile will sign Friday an integration and cooperation agreement which is an update of the Peace and Friendship treaty of 1984 which paved the way for a close relation and dependency between the neighbouring countries that only a few years before had been on the verge of war.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 10:11 UTC

  Brazilian Senate ready to approve Venezuela’s inclusion in Mercosur

  

  Strong lobbying from business interests in Brazil and Venezuela apparently will have tipped the balance and open the way for the Brazilian Congress to include Venezuela in South America’s largest trade block, Mercosur when it takes a vote on Thursday.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 08:16 UTC

  World health leader impressed by Castro and Cuban medical facilities

  

  Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro “looks wonderful,” World Health Organization director general Margaret Chan said on Wednesday, after meeting the 83-year-old leader who resigned the presidency last year due to ailing health.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 07:36 UTC

  Majority of Hondurans want presidential election to go ahead to end crisis

  

  A majority of Hondurans support the proposal that both ousted President Manuel Zelaya and the head of the de facto government Roberto Micheletti should step down in favour of a caretaker president, thus keeping to the political calendar which schedules presidential elections for November 29th.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 07:11 UTC

  Brazil confirms the gradual elimination of US dollar in trade operations

  

  Brazilian Central Bank president Henrique Meirelles said the country is considering the gradual elimination of the US dollar in trade with China, Russia and India, which together with Brazil make up the BRIC group.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 07:08 UTC

  Ecuador ratifies Mercosur “democratic clause”

  

  Ecuador ratified this week support to Mercosur democratic commitment or “democratic clause” which automatically throws out any country member which violates such a commitment.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 06:58 UTC

  British MPs nervous about plans to “clean up” Parliament expenses excesses

  

  The man brought in by British Primer Minister Gordon Brown to clean up Parliament does not live in the real world, an MP has said. Sir Christopher Kelly, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, does not know the hours MPs work or what kind of job they do, said Conservative MP Roger Gale.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 06:54 UTC

  EC approves UK’s Northern Rock split into a “good” bank and a “bad” bank

  

  The European Commission has approved the Government's plans for splitting United Kingdom’s Northern Rock in two: a “good” bank and a “bad” bank. The “good” bank will continue Northern Rock's economic activities, while the “bad” bank will become in effect an asset management company running down the remaining toxic assets.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 06:48 UTC

  Spanish mayor promises closer people to people relations with Gibraltar

  

  Alejandro Sanchez the newly elected mayor of La Linea, the Spanish city next to Gibraltar, has declared he wants to intensify cross border relations and foster increased contacts between groups, associations and professional bodies on both sides of the frontier.

• Thursday, October 29th 2009 - 03:27 UTC

  “Efficiency”, the watchword for Chile’s Berlusconi, according to FT

  

  Chilean Conservative presidential candidate, billionaire Sebastián Piñera is described as Chile’s Berlusconi in an article from the Financial Times (FT), which also underlines his lead in public opinion polls and the growing problems faced by the ruling coalition after 19 years in office.