Whoever succeeds Brazilian President Lula da Silva next January will receive a budget highly committed to infrastructure and with limited margin for economic decision-making according to Sunday reports in the Rio do Janeiro press.
Argentina has US regulatory approval to restructure 20 billion USD in defaulted debt and expects to launch the deal within three weeks, announced the government on Monday.
The Organization of American States (OAS), through its Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), and the United Nations (UN), through its Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), presented in Vienna the latest joint study on drug consumption among student populations in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay.
French skipper Franck Cammas and his crew onboard Groupama 3 have broken the around-the-world sailing record. The maxi-trimaran shaved two days eight hours off the mark set by Orange II in 2005 to set a record of 48 days seven hours 44 minutes to lap the globe.
Cuban farmers are pressing for greater autonomy to produce and sell their crops, blaming government inefficiency for Cuba’s falling food output despite agricultural reforms introduced by President Raúl Castro.
Four executives of mining giant Rio Tinto have admitted to a court in the Chinese city of Shanghai that they took bribes, officials have said. Lawyers for the men - Australian Stern Hu and three Chinese colleagues - said they admitted accepting some money but are disputing the amounts.