Wednesday, 15 May 2013 20:44
Posted by Abdul Ahad
GENEVA: Argentina has launched a new challenge to the European Union over the bloc's rules on the import of biofuels, the World Trade Organization said Wednesday."Argentina has notified the WTO Secretariat, on May 15, of a request for consultations with the European Union on measures imposed by the EU and/or its Member States that affect the importation and marketing of biodiesel and implementing measures as well as measures supporting the biodiesel industry," the Geneva-based body ...
25 
CARACAS: The Venezuelan opposition has released what it says is an audio tape revealing intrigue within the ruling socialist party of the late Hugo Chavez and Cuban meddling in the country's affairs.The opposition says the tape is of a conversation between well-known state media presenter Mario Silva and a Colonel Aramis Palacios, identified as a Cuban intelligence agent, about a rift among Venezuela's top leadership.In the tape, Silva accuses Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Assembly and a longtime member of Chavez's inner circle, of controlling the country's main intelligence agency and being "interested in power and money.""The only way to stop him is to show that he is corrupt and prove that the Comandante (Chavez) knew this," Silva allegedly says, adding that he fears Cabello could take control of the armed forces and carry out a coup.Cabello dismissed the tape, challenging the opposition to present "proof" and insisting there ...
SANTIAGO: Chile's economic growth eased in the first quarter to expand 4.1 percent year-on-year, its slowest pace of growth in a year and a half, central bank data showed on Monday.The mining and services sectors helped lift activity in the first quarter, while drops in fishing, restaurant and hotels, agriculture and livestock and industry weighed, the bank said. Gross domestic product grew 0.5 percent in the first quarter from the last quarter of 2012, compared ...
SANTIAGO: A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Chile on Monday, the US Geological Survey said, but Chilean emergency authorities said they saw no prospect that the tremor would generate a tsunami.The quake struck 400 miles (640 km) west of Puerto Aisen at a depth of 6.2 miles, the USGS said.It said the quake had occurred at 5:49 a.m. Chile time (0943 GMT)Chile's emergency office said on Twitter that the quake did not ...
BUENOS AIRES: Jorge Rafael Videla, an austere former army commander who led Argentina during the bloodiest period of a "dirty war" dictatorship and was unrepentant about kidnappings and murders ordered by the state, died on Friday at age 87.Videla was the first president to head the military junta that "disappeared" thousands of suspected leftists from 1976 to 1983, and he spent his final years behind bars for human rights crimes, including the systematic theft of ...
QUITO: A ring that smuggled immigrants from India and Sri Lanka into the United States through Ecuador has been broken up with the arrest of six people, Ecuadoran authorities said Thursday.Three Indian nationals and two members of Ecuador's immigration police were among the six people arrested in the port city of Guayaquil, where the smuggling network operated, officials said."They brought in nationals from India and Sri Lanka, and arranged refuge for them in various hotels," ...
GENEVA: Argentina has launched a new challenge to the European Union over the bloc's rules on the import of biofuels, the World Trade Organization said Wednesday."Argentina has notified the WTO Secretariat, on May 15, of a request for consultations with the European Union on measures imposed by the EU and/or its Member States that affect the importation and marketing of biodiesel and implementing measures as well as measures supporting the biodiesel industry," the Geneva-based body ...
