Politics

• Friday, August 21st 2009 - 11:26 UTC

  Falkland Island: Weekly Penguin News Update

  

  Headlines: ‘Let us help you’ police chief urges domestic abuse victims; Economic Development Strategy goes public; Doyle reports.

• Friday, August 21st 2009 - 11:07 UTC

  Colombian president closer to re-re-election, but it’s not that simple

  

  Colombia’s Senate passed a bill late Wednesday that may pave the way for a national referendum on whether to allow President Alvaro Uribe to seek a third consecutive term in next year’s presidential election.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 16:17 UTC

  US does not have or seeks bases inside Colombia, said Hillary Clinton

  

  United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US-Colombia defence cooperation agreement would not create US bases in Colombia or significantly increase US military presence in the region.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 16:05 UTC

  Argentina and Brazil moving towards “financial integration”

  

  Argentina and Brazil signed Wednesday an agreement to swap domestic currencies for the equivalent of a total 1.8 billion US dollars, which could be used to increase international reserves. The accord was described as an important effort towards “financial integration” in the framework of Mercosur.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 15:54 UTC

  Brazilian Senate corruption scandal closing in on President Lula da Silva

  

  A former high ranking officer from Brazil’s Tax Office directly accused President Lula da Silva’s handpicked candidate for October 2010 presidential election of trying to stop a probe into the finances of the Senate’s chief family.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 15:46 UTC

  Buenos Aires tragic rock club manager convicted to 20 years in prison

  

  Argentina's Court of Justice on Wednesday convicted and sentenced a club owner to 20 years in prison for a deadly club fire that killed 194 people but absolved the band that had played the night of the tragedy.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 05:06 UTC

  Arbitrary arrests and beatings in Honduras, claims Amnesty report

  

  In the seven weeks since the military-backed bloodless coup in Honduras, several hundred people protesting against the de facto government have been arbitrarily arrested and beaten by government forces, a new Amnesty International report says.

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 04:59 UTC

  UK Conservative MPs want salaries doubled to £ 130.000

  

  The row over British Member of Parliament expenses has reignited after two senior Tories called for MPs to be given massive pay rises. Sir Patrick Cormack, who was a candidate for Commons Speaker, said their salaries should be doubled - from £64,766 to more than £130,000, in return for scrapping their controversial second homes allowances

• Thursday, August 20th 2009 - 04:51 UTC

  “Deep scars” from recession will an effect for years to come, warns IMF

  

  The world has begun to recover from recession but the process will not be simple, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. The recession has “left deep scars which will affect both supply and demand for many years to come” according to IMF chief economist, Olivier Blanchard.

• Wednesday, August 19th 2009 - 12:44 UTC

  Mujica meets President Bachelet and expresses admiration for Chile

  

  Uruguay’s ruling coalition presidential candidate Senator Jose Mujica met on Tuesday with Chilean president Michelle Bachelet as part of a regional campaign to boost the Broad Front ticket. Last week Mujica and his ticket partner economist Danilo Astori met with Brazil’s Lula da Silva.