Politics

• Sunday, April 19th 2009 - 04:43 UTC

  Obama tells Unasur members US and Cuba are “on a path of change”

  

  South American leaders pressed President Barack Obama on Saturday to end the US economic embargo on Cuba and abstain from interventionist policies as he attempts to reshape US hemispheric relations. Obama was quoted saying that the US and Cuba are “on a path of change”

• Sunday, April 19th 2009 - 04:24 UTC

  The U shaped “new beginning” table in Port Spain

  

  Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet, pro tempore president of the Union of South American Nations, Unasur, chaired this morning’s closed doors meeting or South American leaders with Barrack Obama.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 10:45 UTC

  All pictures in London and Blackpool “verboten” by British police orders

  

  The Austrian tourists who say they were forced by police to delete images of London buses amid terrorism fears have received help from the UK to recover their lost pictures.
  Klaus Matzka and his son were left in shock when police demanded they stopped taking pictures of London buses and delete all such images immediately.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 09:39 UTC

  Summit “first step for a new regional order” says Cristina

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said Friday that the Trinidad and Tobago summit “should be the first step for a new regional order” and recalled the previous summit in Argentina had signalled “an inflection point for the continent”.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 09:05 UTC

  Obama pledges a “new beginning” with Latinamerica and Cuba

  

  United States President Barack Obama pledged on Friday to seek a “new beginning” in ties with the Castro brothers ruled Cuba as part of a new era of US partnership and engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean. But he also pointed out he had come to speak about the future, not the past.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 08:56 UTC

  “I want to be your friend” says Chavez and shakes hands with Obama

  

  President Barack Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez shared a friendly handshake at the start of the Fifth Summit of the Americas Friday. The Venezuelan government called the handshake ''historic'' and hinted that it was the first step toward thawing chilly relations between the two nations.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 05:46 UTC

  ALBA summit support Paraguay’s Itaipu dam claims

  

  The ALBA group presidential summit, which has Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez as its main promoter, fully supported Paraguayan claims in its conflict with Brazil regarding the energy from Latinamerica’s largest hydroelectric dam Itaipú.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 04:19 UTC

  Hillary Clinton admits failure of US policy towards Cuba

  

  United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday US policy toward Cuba has failed as she welcomed an ”overture'' from President Raul Castro to talk about “everything” including human rights and political prisoners.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 04:02 UTC

  OAS Secretary General wants Cuba back again in the organization

  

  The Secretary General of the Organization of American States, OAS Jose Miguel Insulza said Friday that he will ask its members to readmit Cuba almost half a century after the country was ousted for its “communist alignment”.

• Friday, April 17th 2009 - 11:14 UTC

  De facto exit for embargo: Castro and Obama agree to discuss “any issue”

  

  Cuban President Raul Castro said from Venezuela that his government is willing to discuss any issue with Washington, as along as it's a conversation between equals and Washington respects “the Cuban people's right to self-determination”.