Politics

• Wednesday, October 7th 2009 - 07:01 UTC

  EU and Uruguay reach agreement on whisky import taxes

  

  European Union closed an investigation into Uruguayan taxing of spirit imports after the country removed “unfair barriers” avoiding a complaint at the World Trade Organization.

• Wednesday, October 7th 2009 - 05:53 UTC

  Unasur agrees to create a council to combat drugs’ trade

  

  Security ministers from the Union of South American Nations, Unasur, agreed to the creation of a South American Council to Combat Drugs Trafficking, announced Bolivia’s Home Secretary in an official release from La Paz.

• Wednesday, October 7th 2009 - 05:46 UTC

  The only “problem” for a solution in Honduras is Micheletti, says Lula da Silva

  

  Brazilian President Lula da Silva said Honduras's interim government is illegitimate, and called for de facto president Roberto Micheletti and his administration to step down.

• Tuesday, October 6th 2009 - 23:12 UTC

  The UN and the OAS: There is a choice to be made

  

  (*) The current crisis in Honduras could have a profound impact on the future of Central American institutions. As hemispheric players invest their prestige and political clout in the final outcome of the standoff between ousted constitutional President Manuel Zelaya and de facto Interim President Roberto Micheletti, it is apparent that the OAS is showing its profound limitations once again, as has often been the case in the past.

• Tuesday, October 6th 2009 - 07:33 UTC

  Uruguayan president Vazquez the most popular leader of the country

  

  Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez is the political leader with the highest popular support in the country, 61%, with only five months left to the end of his five year mandate. Vazquez is also the first president elected in Uruguay with a Socialist ticket.

• Tuesday, October 6th 2009 - 06:49 UTC

  Micheletti lifts emergency decree; IMF promises aid to Zelaya

  

  Honduras' de facto leader Roberto Micheletti lifted Monday an emergency decree that suspended some civil liberties and shut two media outlets loyal to ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Micheletti had come under pressure to end the emergency measures as the Organization of American States, OAS, tried to negotiate an end to a crisis triggered when Zelaya was toppled in a June coup.

• Tuesday, October 6th 2009 - 06:38 UTC

  “Historic day” for Brazil which for the first time becomes IMF creditor

  

  Brazil became on Monday for the first time ever a creditor of the International Monetary Fund when it formalized a decision to buy 10 billion US dollars worth of IMF notes nominated in SDR.

• Monday, October 5th 2009 - 14:00 UTC

  Malvinas Families grateful to Argentine, UK governments and Islanders

  

  “We are most grateful to the governments of Argentina and Britain for having allowed us to go ahead with the homage, and to the Falkland Islanders for having left aside wounds of the past”, said Malvinas Families head Hector Cisneros at the successful completion of the first of two visits to the Falkland Islands.

• Monday, October 5th 2009 - 13:50 UTC

  Micheletti admits it was “a mistake” the way Zelaya was ousted

  

  Honduran de facto president Roberto Micheletti admitted that the way elected President Manuel Zelaya was ousted by the military last June 28th and flown out of the country, “was a mistake”.

• Monday, October 5th 2009 - 13:45 UTC

  Argentina mourns folk singer Mercedes Sola, the “voice of Latinamerica”

  

  Argentine folk singer Mercedes Sosa, the 'voice of Latinamerica' whose music inspired opponents of South America's brutal military regimes and led to her forced exile in Europe, died on Sunday at 5.15 am after have battled for more than 13 days a delicate health condition.