The US added 192,000 new jobs in March, in line with expectations, as the unemployment rate held steady at 6.7%. Severe weather over the winter did not prevent the monthly average for new jobs from continuing a climb towards pre-economic crisis levels.
By Nicholas Cunningham of Oilprice.com - On March 28, the White House released a multi-pronged strategy to reduce methane emissions from a variety of sources, a step the administration says is an outgrowth of the President's Climate Action Plan announced last year. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, about 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
The United States failure to recognize the right of the Falkland Islands to national self-determination is “disappointing”, reads a British House of Commons inquiry into the health of the so-called special relationship between the UK and the US. The report was released a day after the 32nd anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the South Atlantic islands (2 April 1982) and highlights London's frustration on the issue.
Gibraltar top elected officials this week went on a lobbying tour in the United States where they met government officials, visited Capitol Hill, talked trade and strongly defended the British Overseas Territory freedom, self determination and sovereignty.
President Barack Obama and Pope Francis focused publicly on their mutual respect and shared concern for the poor on Thursday during their meeting in the Vatican, but the lengthy private discussion also highlighted the deep differences between the White House and the Catholic Church on abortion and birth control.
Argentina underlined the support from Brazil, France, Mexico, (even the IMF), among other institutions in the country's long exhausting litigation with hedge funds, an issue which is crucial for Argentina and the whole international financial system.
United States Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson said Washington is considering increasing cooperation with Paraguay in combating trans-national crime, particularly Brazilian organizations involved in durgs and arms trafficking.
President Jose Mujica confirmed that Uruguay has agreed with the United States to accept some prisoners held in the much-criticized detention center at the US military base of Guantanamo Bay, but he also cautioned that everything has a bill.
The US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen hinted on Wednesday that interest rates in the US could start to rise in early 2015, that is six months after it halts its monthly bond-buying program. Ms Yellen made the remarks after the Fed said it will scale back bond purchases by a further 10bn dollars per month.
The US National Security Agency has created a surveillance system that is recording all the phone calls in an undisclosed foreign country, allowing it to play back any conversation up to 30 days later, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.