
An ex-CIA employee has said he acted to protect basic liberties for people around the world in leaking details of US phone and internet surveillance. Edward Snowden, 29, was revealed as the source of the leaks at his own request by the UK's Guardian newspaper.

China approved three genetically modified soybean types for consumption, including the RR2BT seed resistant to the imidazolinonas and the glufosinat-ammonium herbicides. The announcement was made following a meeting between Agriculture ministers from Argentina and China in Beijing.

Amnesty International said that British authorities in their meetings with visiting Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos should not allow a ‘focus on commercial diplomacy to come at the cost of raising human rights. President Santos is basically on a business and trade visit to the UK, but is also expected to address issues of ‘security and intelligence”.

President Juan Manuel Santos revealed on Friday in London that Colombia has been cooperating with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, “since a long time”. Last June first the Colombian Executive announced that the Ministry of Defence was going to sign an agreement with NATO “to begin the process of becoming closer to NATO”.

Leaving behind an atmosphere of mistrust, China and Mexico agreed this week to upgrade bilateral ties to comprehensive strategic partnership, and thus opening broad prospects for economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

European authorities are to propose bringing control of the inter-bank lending rate, Libor, under the supervision of a Paris-based regulator. The draft regulation proposes moving oversight of the scandal-hit benchmark from London to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

Latinamerican countries expressed on Thursday their full support for Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falklands/Malvinas, during the 43 annual assembly of the Organization of American States taking place in Guatemala. Only Canada was against the OAS final declaration while the United States did not take position on the matter.

An “ad hoc” committee, made up of various countries, will advise the Government of Panama, host of the 2015 Seventh Summit of the Americas, regarding a possible invitation to Cuba to participate in the next triennial meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Hemisphere.

The Bank of England on Thursday voted to keep its main interest rate at 0.5% following a monetary policy meeting, the last for departing Governor Mervyn King. The BoE also decided against creating more cash under its Quantitative Easing (QE) program that is aimed at boosting growth amid Britain's fragile economic recovery.

The International Monetary Fund admitted it had to lower its normal standards for debt sustainability to bail out Greece, and its projections for the Greek economy may have been overly optimistic.