Articles

Brazil increased its military spending by 34% between 2011 and 2012. The number was released by the Ministry of Defence. Many of the resources were considered strategic programs such as the development of submarines for the Navy, fighter aircraft modernization and development of transport aircraft KC-390, which is not yet available. Other areas that received an injection of resources included updating aerial gunnery system and recovery of damaged equipment.

According to the report overall industry expenses were 3,250 million in 2011 and amounted to 4,350 million in 2012.

Unemployment has shown its darker side, becoming perhaps the biggest economic and social problem worldwide. The current situation is not very different from the Great Depression of the 1930s, when millions of people were left without work.

MOSCOW, RUSSIA (01/JUN/2013.) - The presidents of Russia and the U.S., Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama, have instructed their security services to find a solution to the case of the CIA ex-technician Edward Snowden, today announced Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia's Security Council.

The presidents "have no solution that satisfies each of the parties and therefore have instructed the director of the FSB (former KGB) Alexander Bortnikov and FBI Director - Robert Mueller to be in constant touch and to find a solution", Patrushev said to the television channel "Rossiya 24".

WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES (26/JUN/2013.) - The U.S. economic performance during the first three months of the year was weaker than initially reported to register a growth of just 1.8 percent, reported the Commerce Department.

The figure represented a substantial retreat from the 2.5 growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which was first reported by the Commerce Department last April.

However, the figure was placed above the paltry 0.4 percent that was reported during the fourth quarter of 2012.

QUITO, ECUADOR (27/JUN/2013.) - Ecuador's government announced on Thursday that it waives tariff preferences it receives from the United States due to the pressures of the case of former U.S. spy Edward Snowden, who sought asylum at the South American country.

The communications secretary of the Presidency of Ecuador, Fernando Alvarado said Ecuador "does not accept pressure or threats from anyone, and does not trade the principles for the mercantile interests, however important they may be".

WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES (26/JUN/2013.) - The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have begun to move weapons to Jordan as part of the U.S. plan to strengthen the forces fighting against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, said today The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The journal, quoting diplomatic sources and the U.S. intelligence, said the CIA conducted training work in the secret facilities located in Jordan to prepare moderate Syrian rebels, who are fighting with General Salim Idris, the main rebel commander backed by Washington.

WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES (19/JUN/2013.) - The U.S. federal authorities today accused two men from New York of conspiring to build a weapon of directed energy beams supposedly able to kill "enemies of Israel" with the same power as the 1945 U.S. nuclear attack on Hiroshima.

One of the men, who belonged to the white supremacist organization Ku Klux Klan (KKK), said he could build a weapon that would cause a "Hiroshima with a simple switch," with which all that is breathing would be dead by morning" , according to the charging document.

LA PAZ, BOLIVIA (19/JUN/2013.) - The Bolivian government has declared today a national emergency due to the drought in four of the nine states of Bolivia, where nearly 17 000 families have been left homeless, informed Ruben Saavedra of the Ministry of Defense,.
Drought affected twelve municipalities in the regions of Chuquisaca, Tarija, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, with slightly more than 86 000 hectares and almost 49 000 heads of cattle, the senior official explained.

Enniskillen, UK (17/JUN/2013.) - United States and Russia acknowledged today that their positions on the conflict in Syria are divergent, but stressed that share mutual interest to end violence and warring parties to negotiate.

The U.S. president, Barack Obama, and Vladimir Putin, discussed today at the G8 summit, the dramatic situation in Syria during a meeting that lasted more than two hours.

LONDON, GREAT BRITAIN (17/JUN/2013.) - Edward Snowden, responsible for the leaks of the secret surveillance programs in the U.S. currently in hiding in Hong Kong, told the British newspaper "The Guardian" that the government of his country can’t "stop the truth."

"All I can say now is that the U.S. government will not be able to cover imprisoning or murdering me. The truth is coming out and you can’t stop" said the former employee of the CIA and the U.S. National Security Agency ( NSA) in an interview session to the British newspaper.

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (14/JUN/2013.) - The Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2011 managed to have a greater number of people living in the middle class than in poverty, but the region is still far from reaching the prosperity of the rich countries as one out of four Latin Americans lives on less than four dollars a day, reported the World Bank on Friday.

HAVANA, CUBA (13/JUN/2013.) - Cuba began today celebrations of the 85th anniversary of legendary Argentine-Cuban guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara, which will take place tomorrow 14th June, to remember and to analyze his particular vision of socialism.

The life and work of the guerrilla commander are topics of the symposium "Che Guevara at the current time" opened on Thursday in the Ministry of Higher Education in Havana.