
Obama administration warned the US economy had encountered strong headwinds and the country's fiscal challenge remained grave, but it lowered an estimate for the budget deficit this year.

The Indian government announced the development of a touch-screen laptop pitched at students at a cost of 35 US dollars. The low cost device, which runs Linux, is being readied for production.

Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri inaugurated the 124th edition of the Agriculture, Livestock and Industry Fair organized by the Argentine Rural Society (SRA) that will open on Saturday in the Palermo grounds. SRA head Hugo Biolcati was also present and took the opening honours along with the city Mayor.

The United States Federal Reserve will try to push borrowing costs even lower if the job market continues to languish, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said, offering his clearest blueprint yet for possible additional monetary easing.

In spite of the ongoing dispute with China over the soy-oil import ban, Argentina this week imposed antidumping measures in the form of ad valorem rights on multi-processors originated in China and Brazil.

Cattle breeders in Paraguay and Chilean are suffering the consequences of a particularly severe austral winter which has killed hundreds of cattle and threatens the lives of tens of thousands more.

Chile’s King Crab season has officially kicked off for this year. The southern king crab is a delicacy in Chile, as 90% of each year’s catch is shipped to markets in Europe, North America and Asia. In Santiago, fresh king crab starts at about 25 US dollars per pound.

Brazil’s central bank signalled it may stop raising interest rates soon after policy makers unexpectedly slowed the pace of increases and said inflation was less of a threat amid slowing global growth.

The Chilean government’s interest in creating a law to encourage the repatriation of funds from abroad received approval by a number of tax experts this past week, reported local media. The proposal, which was first mentioned publicly, last week would allow money earned outside the country to enter Chile, but at a lower tax rate.

The Chilean national CASEN Survey revealed last week that even though poverty in the capital Santiago is below the national poverty rate of 15.1%, the city’s poverty levels grew from 10.6 to 11.5% in the last three years.