US President Barack Obama Friday nominated former Israeli central bank governor and renowned economist Stanley Fischer as vice chair of the Federal Reserve, completing a shakeup of the board's leadership.
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
The US economy created only 74,000 jobs in December, with many Americans giving up looking for work, latest figures show. The number of jobs created was the lowest for three years and was well under half the number expected by analysts.
For the first time, half of the members of the US Congress are millionaires, according to a wealth analysis. At least 268 of the 534 politicians in the Senate and House of Representatives had a net worth of 1m dollars or more in 2012.
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.
The US Supreme Court agreed on Friday to consider a dispute over subpoenas in a case stemming from long-running litigation over Argentina's obligations to bond investors in the wake of its default on 100 billion dollars in sovereign debt in 2002.
Brazilian consumer prices ended 2013 higher than expected at 5.91%, above the upper limit of the government target, after inflation surged in December, official statistics released Friday showed. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said last month's inflation figure of 0.92% was the highest for December since 2002, and compared with 0.54% a month earlier.
Brazilian report shows at least 218 inmates were killed in the country’s jails last year, an average of more than one convict slain every two days. The data was published by Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo on Thursday.
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.
Thousands of people attended the funeral of actress and former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear and her ex husband this Friday, in solidarity with the family of the couple that was slain this week in an armed robbery.