Politics

• Monday, October 29th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Election of President Cristina Kirchner sets several records

  

  The Argentine presidential calendar will remember 2007 for several events: the 53rd president is the first elected woman to reach the highest office, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and possibly the only country in the world where a husband (President Nestor Kirchner) hands over the blue and white sash to his wife.

• Monday, October 29th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Next government in Argentina with ample support in Congress

  

  Elected Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner should face no obstacles with Executive initiatives in Congress according to the results of her windfall victory which consolidated the government's grip on the Senate and now becomes extensive to the Lower House.

• Monday, October 29th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Uruguay becomes first country to order the “$100 laptop”

  

  The first official order for the so-called “100 US dollars laptop” has been placed by the government of Uruguay which is buying 100,000 of the machines for schoolchildren aged six to 12.

• Sunday, October 28th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Magallanes asks for extension of pro-business bills

  Magallanes Region in the extreme south of Chile requested from the central government a 20 year extension of the legislation which contemplates certain benefits for business and investment in the remote areas of the country.

• Saturday, October 27th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Mercosur trapped by its own contentious shortcomings

  

  Mercosur Foreign Affairs and Economy ministers met Friday in Montevideo to address asymmetries and non tariff restrictions inside the block, an ongoing issue which has become a source of growing contention between full members, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

• Friday, October 26th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Falkland Islands: Weekly Penguin News update

  

  Headlines:
  Three's a crowd; Preservation vs progress? Heritage concerns grow as Deans' smithy is demolished; Treasury behind in financial reporting to councillors; Police investigation - officer disciplined.

• Friday, October 26th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  UK ratifies no Gib sovereignty talks without people's consent

  Britain will not enter into a process of sovereignty negotiations with which the people of Gibraltar are not themselves first content. That was the message from Jim Murphy the new British Minister for Europe at the Foreign Office to over 1,200 people gathered at the Guildhall in London for Gibraltar Day last Monday October 22.

• Friday, October 26th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Chilean sovereignty from “Arica to the Southern Pole”

  The Chilean Congress Lower House Defence Committee arrived Thursday in Antarctica to strong gusts and freezing temperatures and with the purpose of exercising “Chilean sovereignty” in the midst of a growing controversy over off Antarctica sea bed claims.

• Friday, October 26th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Chavez blames US foreign policy for soaring oil prices

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said U.S. foreign policy is in part responsible for soaring oil prices and predicted that crude will continue its upward spiral rapidly closing in on the 100 US dollars per barrel benchmark.

• Friday, October 26th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Polls unanimous: four more years of Kirchner dynasty

  

  Argentina's First Lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is set to win Sunday's presidential election according to all the public opinion polls published in the Buenos Aires media a few hours before the two days ban on political campaigning becomes effective.