OPEC energy ministers decided on Saturday to leave oil production quotas unchanged after talks in the Egyptian capital following falls in the price of oil. OPEC President Chakib Khelil said any such decision would be made at a meeting in Algeria next month.
China's President Hu Jintao has warned that the global financial crisis could weaken his country's competitiveness. Mr Hu gave his warning at a meeting of the Politburo and his words have been made public by the state media.
Magallanes Region in the extreme south of Chile seems prepared to endure the effects of the coming global recession according to a report published Sunday by the country's main daily in Santiago, El Mercurio.
A Chilean fisherman from Puerto Williams in Tierra del Fuego found a bottle with a message to an Argentine combatant who died when the sinking of the cruiser General Belgrano in May 1982 during the South Atlantic conflict over the Falkland Islands.
The rugged coast of western Tasmania in Australia claimed the lives of another 150 whales at the weekend when they stranded themselves on craggy rocks near Sandy Cape. The long-finned pilot whales were spotted on Saturday morning and were already badly injured by the time rescue crews and locals reached them.
Brazilian cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer will represent Pope Benedict XVI in the ceremony honouring the 30th anniversary of the Vatican's mediation between Chile and Argentina which avoided a full fledged war over the Beagle channel and adjoining islands in the extreme south of the continent.