
The Brazilian highways patrol police in several states joined the national strike of federal workers that are protesting for higher salaries and better working conditions. The strike of the National Federation of Highway Police (Fenapre) was decided unanimously over the weekend effective Monday.

Argentina has become the most visited country in South America with arrivals in 2011 reaching almost six million tourists, said Leonardo Boto head of the country’s National Tourism Promotion Institute, Improtur.

Several groups allied to Argentine president Cristina Fernandez are actively promoting a constitutional review that would allow re-election for a third consecutive four year mandate. The last Argentine constitutional review was in 1994 when the four-year mandate was introduced with the possibility of an only immediate re-election, thus modifying the six year mandate but with no re-election.

With droughts parching farms in the United States and near the Black Sea, weak monsoon rains in India and persistent hunger in Africa's Sahel region, the world could be headed towards another food crisis, experts say.

The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) called for dialogue to solve the crisis between Ecuador and Great Britain regarding the diplomatic asylum granted by the Andean country to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange who is holed in at the embassy in London.

Ecuador has reiterated its intention of joining Mercosur but this needs to be compatible with the rules from the Community of Andean Nations, CAN, (to which it now belongs) said Ecuadorean ambassador Horacio Sevilla Borja.

Brazil's economy enjoys sound fundamentals for sustainable growth, with an economic expansion likely to pick up speed in the next few quarters, Central Bank President Alexandre Tombini said at a business conference Friday.

One of the world’s leading banks, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has been authorised to operate in Brazil, indicates a Brazilian government decision published on Thursday in the official gazette.

New Zealand's first branded lamb shipment to Brazil is scheduled to arrive at the port of Santos in the middle of next month and be available at 120 stores in Sao Paulo and to diners in restaurants and hotels throughout the country.

Brazil National Confederation of Store Managers, CNLD, and the Credit Protection Service, SPC, report that payment delinquency was down 5.6% in July. At the same time the two organizations revealed that over the last five years indebtedness in Brazil has risen 20% annually.