SAO PAULO: Brazil is taking steps to lower the spiraling cost of accommodations during the United Nations’ upcoming conference on sustainable development, the office of President Dilma Rousseff said Wednesday. The statement said the steps could bring reductions of more than 60 percent for the cost of housing at the Rio+20 conference in Rio de [...]
Argentina’s renationalization of its biggest oil company, YPF, recently caused an outcry. But the cases of oil nationalization in Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela show that outcomes can vary widely. “Nationalization is an old story in Latin America,” says Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. “Almost as old as oil itself.” When countries [...]
RIO DE JANEIRO: Police in Brazil say an American tourist was detained for several hours after trying to leave Rio de Janeiro without paying his hotel bill of more than $7,000, including $3,000 for “caipirinhas” — Brazil’s national cocktail of sugarcane rum, lime, sugar and ice.
The buzziest moment during the first debate among Mexico’s four candidates for president this Sunday happened before anyone had said a word. At the debate’s start, a curvy model wearing a form-fitting white dress with a revealing cutout showing off her generous cleavage, presented a box for candidates to draw papers that would determine who [...]
Argentina’s Congress has approved the controversial nationalisation of Spanish-controlled oil company YPF. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who announced the move last month, will now sign the bill into law.She says taking back control of Argentina’s largest oil company is a vital national interest.But the move has strained relations with Spain and the European Union, [...]
MEXICO CITY: Regulators are due to vote on Monday on one of Mexico’s biggest antitrust cases, a $1 billion fine for tycoon Carlos Slim, which has been bogged down in court appeals and disputes for a year. Federal competition commission Cofeco slapped Telcel, the cash cow of Slim’s giant telecoms company America Movil, with the [...]
All UK exports to Argentina’s armed forces are being halted amid continuing tension over the Falkland Islands. The UK government said the move should “ensure no British licensable exports or trade have the potential to be used by Argentina to impose an economic blockade” on the islands.Since 1998, the UK has sold products only that [...]
Environmental authorities are investigating the deaths of more than 800 dolphins that have washed up on the northern coast of Peru this year. The dolphins may have died from an outbreak of Morbillivirus or Brucella bacteria, said Peruvian Deputy Environment Minister Gabriel Quijandria, according to Peru’s state-run Andina news agency. Speaking to CNN, he said [...]
MEXICO CITY: Whether you are the world’s No. 1 retailer or a humble street vendor, paying public officials a bribe may be the quickest way to get your business growing in Mexico. The New York Times reported this weekend that Wal-Mart Stores Inc investigators probing its Mexican operations found a paper trail of hundreds of [...]
Panama: A Panamanian man and his two friends had been drifting for 16 days in an open fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean when they saw a huge white ship. They would be saved, they thought, and Adrian Vasquez began waving a dark red sweater. Birdwatchers with powerful spotting scopes on the promenade deck of [...]
