Pope Francis put his first stamp on the group at the top of the Roman Catholic hierarchy naming 19 new cardinals from around the world. Sixteen of them are cardinal electors under 80 and thus eligible to enter a conclave to elect a pope. They come from Italy, Germany, Britain, Nicaragua, Canada, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea, Chile, Burkina Faso, the Philippines and Haiti.
Pope Francis has baptized 32 babies in the Sistine Chapel and told their mothers to have no qualms about feeding them there. Two of the infants are the daughter of a couple that did not get married in the Catholic Church and a single mother's son.
Argentina's Foreign Ministry refuted an article by Brazilian newspaper Valór Económico reporting that negotiations between Mercosur and the European Union had been delayed by the failure to reach agreement with Argentina over a joint proposal of goods to include in a free trade agreement
China has claimed that it is very likely that it overtook the US as the world's top trading nation, a title the US has held for decades. According to the latest data, China's total trade grew at an annual rate of 7.6% to 4.16 trillion dollars last year.
A new scheme has been launched to protect the Scotch whisky industry from fake or sub-standard products. The Spirit Drinks Verification Scheme has been set up by the UK government to help consumers identify genuine UK-made products.
The challenging rescue operation launched after a Russian ship became trapped in Antarctic pack ice in December shows the inherent risks facing the frozen continent's burgeoning tourist industry, experts say. Antarctica represents one of the last frontiers for adventurous travelers, an icy wonderland of glaciers, emperor penguins and seemingly endless white expanses.
International airlines operating in Venezuela have 3.3 billion trapped because of currency controls, the International Air Transport Association, IATA, revealed. Airlines have to wait around 12 months for the government to convert their Bolivar earnings into dollars, with the time lag growing, according to the Venezuela Airline Association.
When Mercosur finally holds its much delayed summit in Venezuela at the end of the month following two postponements (12 December and 17 January), besides its normal agenda of agreements and disagreements, it will have to address a new challenge, this time from the European Union which has redefined its development support policy, leaving all Mercosur members, except Paraguay out of its tariffs and market access benefits.
France's data protection watchdog has fined Google 150,000 Euros after the US search engine ignored a three-month ultimatum to bring its practices on tracking and storing user information in line with local law.
A labor appeals court in north-central Argentina ruled that the construction of a Monsanto plant is unconstitutional, halting work on the site. The three judge court ruled 2-1 in favor of the activists who filed a legal appeal against Monsanto’s GMO seed plant on environmental protection grounds in the municipality of Malvinas Argentinas, located in central Cordoba Province.