Politics

• Wednesday, March 18th 2009 - 15:29 UTC

  AIG gives bonuses and challenges US president and Congress

  

  Huge bonuses paid out by ailing insurer AIG will be deducted from the firm's next bail-out payment, the US treasury secretary says. In a letter to congressmen, Timothy Geithner said 165 million US dollars would be taken from 30 billion the firm is due to get as part of its government bail-out.

• Wednesday, March 18th 2009 - 15:20 UTC

  Argentina prepares to take over US air industry plant in Cordoba

  

  President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced Tuesday she will send Congress a bill to re-nationalize the Military Aircraft Manufacturing Centre, a defence contractor currently controlled by US Lockheed Martin Corp.

• Wednesday, March 18th 2009 - 08:13 UTC

  Chile supports India as permanent member of UN Security Council

  

  India and Chile reaffirmed their support for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations including expansion of the Security Council to make the world body more representative, legitimate and effective.

• Wednesday, March 18th 2009 - 08:03 UTC

  Nobel Prize Krugman says US and EU stimulus packages insufficient

  

  The US economist and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman said Tuesday that Europe and the United States should at least double their fiscal efforts in order to salvage the global economy.

• Wednesday, March 18th 2009 - 07:43 UTC

  IMF forecasts 0.6% global contraction this year

  

  The International Monetary Fund expects the global economy to contract 0.6% this year, according to forecasts provided on Tuesday by an IMF official in Lisbon.

• Wednesday, March 18th 2009 - 02:44 UTC

  Princess Anne to meet British ’82 veterans during Falklands visit

  

  THE Princess Royal will take the opportunity to meet Falklands War veterans when she visits the islands this month. She will, however, begin her visit to the Falklands and South Georgia with the unveiling of a plaque to open the extension to the Royal Falkland Islands Police Station.

• Tuesday, March 17th 2009 - 23:30 UTC

  “Peaceful and emotional” Falklands visit for Argentine marathon runners

  

  PEACEFUL and emotional is how five Argentine runners, including three 1982 war veterans, describe their visit to the Falkland Islands and their participation in the Standard Chartered Bank Stanley Marathon on Sunday.

• Tuesday, March 17th 2009 - 13:46 UTC

  Businessman sentenced in Miami for suitcase cash scandal

  

  A Venezuelan businessman was sentenced in Miami on Monday to four years in prison for acting as an unregistered agent of Venezuela in the United States. Franklin Duran had been convicted of conspiring to cover up the origin and destination of a suitcase stuffed with 800.000 US dollars in cash that was found in 2007 in a Buenos Aires airport.

• Tuesday, March 17th 2009 - 13:45 UTC

  UK Overseas Territory could loose self-government because of corruption

  

  Self-government in the Turks and Caicos Islands, a UK dependency, is set to be suspended after ministers were accused of incompetence and likely corruption, reports BBC.

• Tuesday, March 17th 2009 - 13:15 UTC

  US will pursue every single legal avenue” to stop AIG bonuses

  

  United States President Barack Obama expressed anger at 165 million US dollars bonuses ledged to executives of bailed-out insurer AIG, calling the payments “an outrage”.