Evo Morales, Bolivia's president, has enacted a new constitution which hands greater powers to the country's indigenous majority and allows him to seek a second five-year term.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said this week she was pleased when she heard US President Barack Obama say that trade unions are not part of the problem but part of the solution.
Forecasters have warned of very low temperatures overnight, after snow brought a fifth day of chaos to the UK. Road, rail and air transport was again badly affected, while hundreds of schools were again closed.
The IMF has urged the Group of Twenty (G-20) industrialized and emerging market countries to take more decisive policy action to combat the corrosive global financial and economic crisis by bolstering demand and cleaning up the financial sector.
Restoring financial health will require a three-pronged approach, involving the continued provision of ample liquidity and term funding support from central banks, dealing promptly and aggressively with distressed assets, and recapitalizing viable institutions with public funds.
Manufacturing output declined at its fastest rate since 1981 in December, underscoring the fragile state of the UK economy, official figures show. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said it fell 10.2% from a year earlier as recession hit the sector.
Uruguay's wool industry exports between January 31st 2008 and February 2009 totalled 282 million US dollars which is 10.4% less that the same period a year ago, because of a 13.9% drop in wool sales and an 83.8% reduction in live sheep shipments.
One of Uruguay's ruling coalition presidential hopefuls claimed the primary campaign was turning nasty and could leave deep wounds plus mistrust and called for a clean, respectful campaign. He admitted that he could be the target of an inside boycott.