Americas

By John Terrett in Americas on December 30th, 2011
A Thai investor looks at an electronic share price display during the last day of trading in year 2011 [AFP]
As the year turns, what's in store for the global economy?
Europe's on the threshold of recession. 
Its decade-old single currency seems to be on the brink of collapse. 
The US is struggling with a jobless recovery as the presidential election year begins.
Meanwhile, emerging economies like China, its Asian neighbours and most of Latin America - especially Brazil, which is now the sixth biggest economy in the world, leaving previous incumbent Britain in its rear-view mirror - are booming.
To find out more I turned to the Peterson Institute for International Economics on "Think Tank" row in Washington, DC.
It's the only major think-tank in the US devoted to international economics and its leading thinker, Dr C Fred Bergsten, has been running the institute since it was created in 1981.
He says that in 2012, high income and relat
By Alan Fisher in Americas on December 29th, 2011

File 57156
Reuters photo

It is just six days to the Iowa caucus, the first real test of the seven Republicans hoping to win their party’s presidential nomination for the 2012 election.

Karl Rove, the man who masterminded George Bush’s election victories, has described the current battle for the heart of the Republican party as “the most unpredictable, rapidly shifting, and often downright inexplicable primary race I’ve ever witnessed”. 

By Al Jazeera Staff in Americas on December 29th, 2011
Demonstrators chant outside the Los Angeles Federal Building [Reuters]

Al Jazeera staff and correspondents update you on important developments from Wall Street and around the world as the 'Occupy' financial crisis protests go viral.

Al Jazeera is not responsible for content derived from external sites.

AJE Live Stream - Special Coverage: #OccupyWallStreet 

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By John Terrett in Americas on December 27th, 2011

Millions of Americans are facing a bleak holiday new year as they wait to hear if the banks will foreclose on their homes.

The US economy is still struggling to get going again after the global financial collapse of 2008.

The recovery has been slow - and lacking in sufficient new jobs - while home prices remain at historically low levels.

I have just come back from the Midwestern state of Minnesota, where over twenty five thousand people lost their homes to foreclosure last year.

"Look what's that?" "Say alligator" "Alligator!"

That's Monique White who is playing with her grandson, Deshaun, in the Minneapolis home her late dad helped her buy in 2003... but which she might be about to lose.

Raising two sons and a grandchild, she is proud to be the first in her family to own a home.

When the US economy tanked, Monique was initially told her job as a youth counsellor was safe ... but in February 2010 that changed. Monique told me.

By Alan Fisher in Americas on December 26th, 2011
Photo by Reuters

Eight days away from the first true test of the Republican presidential hopefuls brings a new poll with a new leader.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on December 23rd, 2011
[Reuters]

Long before Kim Jong-un was chosen as the heir to North Korea’s dynasty, he was apparently just another eight year old kid who wanted to go see Mickey Mouse at Disneyland Tokyo.

So his parents reportedly took the logical next step anybody in the same situation would: They got him a fake Brazilian passport.

Well, maybe that’s not the obvious next step for most parents, but that is what happened, according to a report in Japan’s widely-read Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, with a print circulation of almost 20 million. 

The article is based on information from Japanese security officials who claim that Jong-un secretly entered Japan with his brother (who was also reportedly using a Brazilian passport).

The kids were a

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on December 21st, 2011
Photo by Reuters

Six days into the hearing on whether or not PFC Bradley Manning should be put on trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the whistleblower website Wikileaks, the prosecution and defence have rested. 

The US government spent four days calling 20 witnesses.  The defence:  35 minutes. They requested 48 witnesses, but the investigating officer only allowed the 10 that were on the government’s list plus two more. Both witnesses worked with Manning in Iraq when he was an intelligence analyst on the night shift in December 2009. 

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on December 19th, 2011
Photo: Reuters

Computer forensics testimony dominated the fourth day in the hearing to determine whether Army PFC Bradley Manning’s case should go to trial. Manning is the alleged source of the 251,887 US diplomatic cables published by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.  

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on December 18th, 2011
This tear gas cannister was reportedly used on Bahrain's pro democracy activists.

On Sunday the New York Times ran a column by Nicholas Kristof titled: “Repressing Democracy, with American Arms.”

The column examines the United States’ millions of dollars in arms sales to Bahrain, a country in the midst of a 10-month government crackdown against pro-democracy protestors that has reportedly left at least 35 dead.

Down south, here in Brazil, a similar discussion – albeit on a much smaller scale - is taking place after photos surfaced on the internet allegedly showing tear gas manufactured in Brazil used against the activists.

By Josh Rushing in Americas on December 17th, 2011
Photo: Reuters

Yesterday was a heavy day.

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