
Mercosur and European Union chief negotiators met on Friday in Brussels to define if conditions are ready for the exchange of tariffs reductions proposals with the purpose of reaching an ambitious trade agreement which was started back in 1999 and has yet to mature.

Visiting Brazilian political advisor and environmentalist Eduardo Viola emphatically expressed support for the Falkland Islands’ right of self-determination during a press conference in Stanley with other visiting Brazilian colleagues, reports this week's edition of Penguin News.

President Cristina Fernandez on the last day of her visit to France, and escorted by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, inaugurated on Thursday Argentina's pavilion at the Salon du Livre in Paris, one of Europe's too cultural events, and also praised the long standing ties between the two countries and evoked leaders Juan Domingo Peron and Charles de Gaulle.

The National Portrait Gallery in London and the BBC unveiled their first joint painted portrait commission – of Falklands War veteran Simon Weston by artist Nicky Philipps. Weston was voted last September by viewers of BBC One’s The One Show as the public figure who most deserved to have his picture displayed at the National Portrait Gallery.

President Jose Mujica confirmed that Uruguay has agreed with the United States to accept some prisoners held in the much-criticized detention center at the US military base of Guantanamo Bay, but he also cautioned that everything has a bill.

President Cristina Fernández praised the decision by France to file an 'amicus curiae' brief before the US Supreme Court, in a show of support to Argentina in its long-standing battle against speculative fund creditors, and also secured the backing of the French government to settle a 9.5bn dollars dispute with the Paris Club.

The Ukraine question must be settled through political negotiations and peace, President Cristina Fernández said at a press conference in Paris where she arrived this week to meet with her French counterpart Francois Hollande.

The Telegraph published a long interview with Daniel Filmus recently appointed to head the Argentine government newly created Malvinas Islands Related Issues Secretariat in which he repeats many of the arguments of the Cristina Fernandez administration campaign referred to the Falklands sovereignty claim, using such words as 'colonialism' and 'militarization', and attacking UK's refusal to sit and dialogue as indicated by UN resolutions.

The recent visit to Chile and particularly Uruguay of Foreign Office minister for Latin-American Hugo Swire has triggered a barrage of comments and debate in Argentina about the Falklands/Malvinas, particularly aggressive towards the FCO official, but not surprising.

US regulator has sued 16 banks for allegedly manipulating the London interbank offered rate (Libor).The Libor rate is used to set trillions of dollars of financial contracts, including mortgages and financial transactions around the world.