Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff left top bankers, investors and corporations CEO frustrated following her decision to cancel a speech to the World Economic Forum on Latin America meeting in Rio do Janeiro.
Spain’s biggest bank Santander reported first-quarter profit declined 5% as lower earnings at home offset gains in Latin America. Net income fell to 2.11 billion Euros from 2.22 billion Euros a year earlier, the Spanish bank said in a filing Friday.
Argentine writer and human rights militant Ernesto Sabato died at his home on Saturday morning at the age of 99. He has been suffering from bronchitis. A physicist by training he became famous because of his writing; however he had not produced any works for quite some time.
Japan's industrial output fell a record 15.3% in March from the previous month, while household spending tumbled the government announced Thursday, direct result of the earthquake impact and ongoing nuclear crisis.
Chrysler anticipated that by the second quarter it will have repaid bailout loans worth more than 7 billion US dollars given by the US and Canadian governments. The auto group said it would pay back the bailout by June with loans from investors.
Chile's LAN Airlines group plans to spend around 4.6 billion US dollars on its fleet of aircraft through 2014, Chief Financial Officer Alejandro de la Fuente announced.
China's manufacturing growth slowed in April, according to official figures. The country's purchasing managers' index (PMI), which is designed to provide a snapshot of conditions in the manufacturing sector, fell to 52.9 in April, from 53.4 in March.
Anti-government protesters in Syria are planning further demonstrations during the week, in spite of the violent crackdown including tanks, bombings and snipers unleashed on them.
UN is withdrawing all international staff from the Libyan capital Tripoli following a mob attack on its offices. UN buildings and some foreign missions were targeted by angry crowds following a NATO air strike that reportedly killed a son of Col Gaddafi.
The memory unit that may tell why an Air France jet plunged into the Atlantic nearly two years ago was recovered from the bottom of the ocean Sunday, France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA) said.