Tag: United States

• Wednesday, January 8th 2014 - 20:17 UTC

  Kennedy in 1963 considered a military intervention in Brazil; a coup followed in 1964

  

  Former US President John F Kennedy mulled possible military intervention in Brazil one year before the 1964 coup that ousted then constitutional president Joao Goulart, according to archive documents released on Tuesday.

• Wednesday, January 8th 2014 - 05:07 UTC

  All 50 US states suffered freezing temperatures, affecting 190 million people

  

  Weather records have tumbled across North America, as all 50 US states saw freezing temperatures. The most extreme arctic blasts, blamed on a weather pattern known as the polar vortex, were said to have affected nearly 190 million people.

• Tuesday, January 7th 2014 - 05:58 UTC

  Yellen confirmed as next Federal Reserve chairperson: Senate votes 56-26

  

  Janet Yellen, a key force behind the Federal Reserve's unprecedented and controversial efforts to boost the US economy, was confirmed on Monday by the Senate to lead the central bank just as it begins to unwind that stimulus.

• Thursday, December 26th 2013 - 05:52 UTC

  US economy picking up strength according to third quarter data

  

  The United States economy grew at a surprisingly robust 4.1% annual pace in the third quarter according to the Commerce Department, which was the strongest advance in nearly two years and only the third time the economy had expanded that quickly from one quarter to the next since 2006.

• Friday, December 20th 2013 - 06:54 UTC

  Brazil and Germany, with UN support hit back at US cyber spying

  

  UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution aimed at protecting the right to privacy of internet users. The resolution was introduced by Brazil and Germany after allegations that the US had been eavesdropping on foreign leaders, including Brazil's Dilma Rousseff and Germany's Angela Merkel.

• Friday, December 20th 2013 - 06:41 UTC

  Brazil expects to begin exporting matured beef to the US in first half of 2014

  

  Brasilia and Washington have taken the latest technical steps to open the US market to Brazilian beef, which if all runs smoothly together with a 60 to 90 days public consultation period could see the first shipments in the second quarter of next year. Currently because of sanitary barriers linked to Foot and Mouth Disease, FMD, Brazil can only export industrialized beef to the US.

• Friday, December 20th 2013 - 06:28 UTC

  US planning a new trade agreement with Latam, but through NAFTA

  

  The President Barack Obama administration is “exploring” a regional trade plan for the Americas that would be the most ambitious hemispheric initiative in years, but contrary to the failed experience of George Bush's FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), this time it would be instrumented through Nafta (North American Free Trade Agreement) partners Mexico and Canada, according to a Miami Herald interview of Andres Oppenheimer with Secretary of State John Kerry.

• Thursday, December 19th 2013 - 06:01 UTC

  Fed announces gradual conditioned tapering of stimuli from next January

  

  The U.S. Federal Reserve will start scaling back its monthly bond-buying program as early as next month, but the reduction will be gradual. The Federal Reserve has been buying 85 billion dollars a month in government bonds in an effort to keep interest rates low and boost economic growth.

• Wednesday, December 18th 2013 - 06:43 UTC

  First ruling against US government 'metadata' collection; Obama meets top technology companies leaders

  

  A US judge has ruled the National Security Agency's mass collection of telephone data may be unconstitutional. Federal District Judge Richard Leon said the electronic spy agency's practice was an “arbitrary invasion”.

• Tuesday, December 17th 2013 - 02:18 UTC

  US insists Obama remains open to a state visit from Brazil's Dilma Rousseff

  

  The new US ambassador in Brazil Liliana Ayalde said President Barack Obama is prepared to receive his Brazilian peer Dilma Rousseff. The statement comes weeks after a state visit planned for last October was suspended by Dilma in protest over revelations of extensive US spying of Brazilian communications including the mobiles of the Brazilian leader.