Uruguay

• Wednesday, January 4th 2017 - 09:59 UTC

  Summer storm strikes Montevideo and coast line causing chaos and 19 injured

  

  At least 19 people injured one of them seriously, was the result of the summer storm with winds of up to 120km that struck the Uruguayan capital Montevideo, and the eastern coast line to almost the border with Brazil, some 350kms away. The report from the national Healthcare system, SAME, said that most patients are from Montevideo and three from the adjoining seaside resorts.

• Thursday, December 29th 2016 - 11:36 UTC

  Uruguay indifferent to the death of the country's last military dictator

  

  Former General Gregorio Alvarez, the last leader of Uruguay’s dictatorship, 1973/1984, died in Montevideo on Wednesday while serving a prison sentence for human rights abuses. He was 91. The military’s health service said he died at the Central Hospital of the Armed Forces. He was buried in a private ceremony on Wednesday.

• Thursday, December 29th 2016 - 06:07 UTC

  ANCAP company in Argentina seeks bankruptcy reorganization proceedings

  

  Uruguayan oil company ANCAP announced Wednesday through a press release that one of its companies, Carboclor S.A., based in Argentina, had turned to the courts to start the reorganization proceedings, known in Argentinian law as “Concurso Preventivo,” which is very similar to the United States' “Chapter Eleven” bankruptcy mechanism.

• Wednesday, December 28th 2016 - 18:41 UTC

  UK ambassador to Uruguay, Ian Duddy presents his diplomatic credentials

  

  British ambassador in Uruguay Ian Duddy, on Monday, made the official presentation of his diplomatic credentials to President Tabaré Vázquez, thus completing the formalities of his post.

• Monday, December 26th 2016 - 04:05 UTC

  Uruguayan government fights climate change: only official met forecasts are to be reported

  

  The Uruguayan government seems to have found the clue to climate change phenomena: it is looking into the legal aspects of limiting weather information, forecasts and warnings, to the official reports from the national Met Office, Inumet (veiled censorship?), which has on several occasions missed to anticipate some serious climate events.

• Wednesday, December 14th 2016 - 08:32 UTC

  Maduro/Vazquez address Mercosur conflict; 'uninvited' Venezuelan minister expected in Buenos Aires

  

  On the eve of Argentina becoming the next chair of Mercosur, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro revealed he held an hour long video conference with his Uruguayan peer Tabare Vazquez and they both agreed in building a path “to channel the current conflict”, which has Venezuela suspended from the group, but is rejected point blank by Caracas.

• Friday, December 9th 2016 - 16:30 UTC

  IMF ups forecast for Uruguay's growth in 2016 to 0.7% - In October it had anticipated 0.1%

  

  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday raised its forecast for economic growth in Uruguay this year to 0.7%, a substantial increase from the 0.1% estimated in October, and underlined the country's resilience to the problems of its neighbors Argentina and Brazil.

• Wednesday, December 7th 2016 - 17:34 UTC

  Uruguay's unemployment drops to 7.1% in October

  

  Unemployment in Uruguay in October fell to 7.1% and marked the lowest monthly record of the year, according to data published on Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). In September this index was at 8.4% and a year ago, in October 2015, at 8.5%.

• Saturday, December 3rd 2016 - 09:41 UTC

  Old-fashioned cigarette doomed, says world's largest tobacco company

  

  A historic lawsuit loss to Uruguay over tobacco-related cancer damages and other technological developments have Philip Morris focusing on new alternatives. “I think the time will come when we will have enough acceptance of these alternative products to begin to propose, along with the governments, a gradual elimination of conventional cigars,” the company CEO Andre Calantzopoulos announced.

• Monday, November 28th 2016 - 09:04 UTC

  Uruguayan football out of control: hooligans force the cancelling of the derby

  

  Uruguay's derby between Peñarol and Nacional was called off on Sunday after fans clashed with police in and around the Centenario stadium, while cooking gas carafes were dropped from the stands against officers injuring several. An estimated 150 hooligans were finally arrested by riot policy with horses and dogs and the match was suspended when the police said it could not guarantee the safety of players and people at the stadium.