Politics

• Saturday, November 21st 2009 - 09:04 UTC

  Mercosur has top performing and worst performing presidents

  

  Two presidents from Mercosur countries figure among the leaders with the highest approval ratings in the Americas while the other two are at the opposite end.

• Saturday, November 21st 2009 - 08:59 UTC

  Sour anniversary for Botnia pulp mill Argentine pickets

  

  An Argentine company has purchased 500 tons of pulp from the Uruguayan Botnia mill which is at the heart of a serious diplomatic controversy with Argentina that has reached the International Court of The Hague.

• Saturday, November 21st 2009 - 05:50 UTC

  Latinamerican poor to reach 189 million (9 million more) because of recession

  

  The current global crisis will cause the number of poor people in Latin America to rise by nine million to 189 million this year, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) said in a report presented in Santiago de Chile.

• Saturday, November 21st 2009 - 05:48 UTC

  UK apologizes to Spain for “lack of judgement” incident in Gibraltar waters

  

  Giles Paxman, Britain's ambassador to Madrid has apologized after the Royal Navy fired on a buoy bearing the red and yellow of the Spanish flag during target practice off Gibraltar.

• Saturday, November 21st 2009 - 05:43 UTC

  Lagos calls for dialogue with the US and admits disappointment with Mercosur

  

  Former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos called for a closer dialogue between Latinamerica and Washington while de-mystifying the alleged negative influence of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in the region. He also admitted he expected “much more from Mercosur”.

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 11:55 UTC

  “Lack of political stability” weighs on Argentina’s credit ratings

  

  Contentious politics and a lack of political stability are the main factors weighing on the outlook for Argentina's credit ratings, Moody's Investors Services said on Thursday.

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 11:52 UTC

  US banks “too big to fail” could be dismantled under new legislation

  

  A key US House of Representatives committee has voted to give the government the power to take apart banks that are “too big to fail”. The bill would give a proposed new council of regulators the right to dismantle firms whose scale could hurt the economy - even if they are healthy.

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 10:35 UTC

  Compromise candidates for EU president and Foreign policy chief

  

  European Union leaders have opted for little-known compromise candidate, Belgium premier Herman Van Rompuy, to become the bloc's first full-time president, diplomats have said.

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 09:46 UTC

  Chile’s presidential election: whoever wins, not much change

  Chile has been Latin America’s success story since the 1980’s, boasting rapid economic growth, successful integration into the world economy, solid democratic institutions, an effective state bureaucracy, and low levels of crruption. By most standards, the country is far better off than the rest of the region.

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 08:45 UTC

  Brazilian Senate calls on a “medium” to explain major blackout causes

  

  Last week’s huge blackout in Brazil which left 18 of the country’s 26 states in the dark is becoming a major embarrassment for the government with opposition Senators summoning a medium to help explain the causes of the outage.