
Abattoirs in Paraguay during January slaughtered 73% more cattle than a year ago indicating strong demand both from overseas and local markets, but also the end of restrictions because of the foot and mouth disease outbreaks that last year knocked out the land locked country from foreign markets.

UK joined the group of countries that vote against granting multilateral organizations’ loans to Argentina as a form of protesting the mistrust generated by the government of President Cristina Fernandez recurrent international misconduct, reports the Buenos Aires media.

Argentina’s inflation last January was the highest in twenty two months, 2.58%, according to the average of private estimates which are banned from making public their findings, but which are released by the Congressional Freedom of Expression Committee.

A New York federal appeals court has agreed to hear from more parties potentially affected by its review of a decision requiring Argentina to pay 1.33 billion dollars to bondholders who did not participate in two debt restructurings.

The United States and the European Union agreed on Wednesday to push for the launch by the end of June of talks to create an Atlantic free trade alliance that could be a benchmark for global partners to follow. A free trade deal would be the most ambitious ever attempted, encompassing half the world's economic output and a third of global trade flows.

President Barack Obama pledged in his annual State of the Union speech to revive the sluggish US economy by creating good, middle-class jobs. The Democratic president promised smarter rather than bigger government for the many, and not just the few and called on Congress 'to take a vote' on a package of progressive reforms..

The European horse-meat scare has reached the Falkland Islands but the government has stated that local retailers have voluntarily removed potentially affected products from their shelves and “there is nothing to suggest a safety risk to consumers who may have eaten affected products”.

FAO Food Price Index held steady at 210 points in January 2013 after three straight months of decline. Increases in oil and fats prices offset lower cereals and sugar quotations while dairy and meat values remained substantially unchanged. The pause in the Index's decline tallies with a significant upward revision in FAO latest forecast for 2012 world cereal production. This is now estimated at 2.302 million tonnes - 20 million tonnes up on December's forecast.

The 43rd British Islands and Mediterranean Region Annual Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association hosted by the Falkland Islands for the second time begins on Tuesday. Over forty delegates have travelled to the Islands for the Conference and Falklands Radio will be broadcasting some of the sessions.

Prime Minister Mario Monti accused his media magnate rival Silvio Berlusconi of trying to buy votes with impossible promises as Italy's election campaign entered its last phase. With February 24-25 vote two weeks away, polls suggest the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) will win a solid lower house majority but may need a deal with Monti's centrists to gain the control of the Senate it must have to govern.