United States

• Thursday, May 29th 2014 - 06:00 UTC

  US Lower House approves legislation to impose sanctions on Venezuela

  

  The US House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday, to impose sanctions on Venezuelans responsible for human rights abuses during anti-government protests, despite Obama administration worries that they could threaten talks seeking to ease the unrest.

• Tuesday, May 27th 2014 - 09:33 UTC

  IMF Lagarde calls on central banks to cooperate on policy moves

  

  As the United States Federal Reserve debates the timing of its first interest rate hike since 2006, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde is urging central banks to cooperate on policy moves.

• Saturday, May 24th 2014 - 00:37 UTC

  The California shale bubble just burst

  

  The great hype surrounding the advent of a shale gas bonanza in California may turn out to be just that: hype. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) – the statistical arm of the Department of Energy – has downgraded its estimate of the total amount of recoverable oil in the Monterey Shale by a whopping 96%. Its previous estimate pegged the recoverable resource in California’s shale formation at 13.7 billion barrels but it now only thinks that there are 600 million barrels available.

• Friday, May 23rd 2014 - 10:50 UTC

  Protesting McDonald's workers arrested in Chicago; labor pay debate beginning to brew in US

  

  More than 100 demonstrators seeking better pay for McDonald's workers were arrested on Thursday as protesters swarmed the fast-food chain's corporate campus near Chicago demanding a minimum wage of 15 dollars an hour and the right to unionize.

• Thursday, May 22nd 2014 - 00:31 UTC

  Fed minutes confirm a retreat from easy monetary policy; concerns regarding job creation

  

  Federal Reserve policymakers last month began laying groundwork for an eventual retreat from easy monetary policy with a discussion of how to best control interest rates as they remove trillions of dollars from the financial system.

• Wednesday, May 21st 2014 - 07:10 UTC

  Mosquito-borne Chikunguna cases reported in Miami

  

  The viral mosquito-borne disease, Chikunguna, has been confirmed in three counties of the state of Florida. According to the Florida Department of Health, the women who recently travelled to the Caribbean include a 29-year-old from Broward County.

• Wednesday, May 21st 2014 - 06:23 UTC

  China protests US claims of cyber spying and warns of ‘harmed relations’

  

  China has summoned the US ambassador who had accused five Chinese military officers of hacking into American companies to steal trade secrets, warning Washington it could take further action, the foreign ministry has said.

• Saturday, May 17th 2014 - 06:45 UTC

  Obama lists assets worth 7.15 million; presidential salary 400.000 dollars

  

  President Barack Obama lists assets worth between 1.95 million and 7.15 million dollars, of which 1 million to 5 million dollars were in Treasury notes, according to financial disclosure forms released today.

• Thursday, May 15th 2014 - 01:01 UTC

  Surprise in Argentina that Mujica should have said “Uruguayans don't go around bribing”

  

  A top official from Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said that “Argentines do not bribe” and does not know why the Uruguayan leader Jose Mujica should have brought up that issue during his current visit to the United States.

• Thursday, May 15th 2014 - 00:38 UTC

  Next US ambassador to Uruguay could be a New Mexico sheep farmer

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica said that the future US ambassador in Montevideo could “probably” be Edward Avalos, currently Under Secretary for trade and regulatory programs from the US Department of Agriculture.