
A new round of talks between the European Union and Mercosur is scheduled to begin Monday in Brussels for a week, according to a press release from the Argentine Foreign Affairs.

The chairman of the Argentine Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee, Guillermo Carmona said that the recent ‘Ushuaia Declaration’ claiming sovereignty over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands will be posted to all Parliaments world-wide to ratify and further advance Argentina’s position in the dispute.

Leading figures from the public, private, and academic sectors will participate in the annual meeting of the Inter American Development Bank, (IDB), In Uruguay, March 15-19, to examine issues that include the European crisis, youth employment, citizen security, culture and sports for youth development, climate change, and cooperation between Asia and Latin America.

In a surprise move the IMF has decided to close its office in Buenos Aires and Argentine issues will be managed and formally addressed from Peru, according to a report from La Nacion, quoting IMF sources.

Samba dancers swathed in orange ostrich feathers welcomed Britain’s Prince Harry to a party on Rio de Janeiro’s Sugarloaf Mountain on Friday. And apparently the fancy footwork was contagious.

Uruguay’s minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Almagro described on Friday as ‘inadmissible” the exclusion of Cuba from the VI Summit of the Americas scheduled for next April 14/15 in Cartagena, Colombia.

One of the worlds largest Marine Protected Areas (MPA) has been created around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, waters that are amongst the most productive in the Southern Ocean. The SGSSI MPA, which was declared on February 27th, covers more than 1 million km². The report is from the South Georgia Newsletter, February edition.

Latin American and Caribbean migrants sent 61 billion dollars in remittances to their home countries last year, up 6% from 57.6 billion in 2010, according to a report released today by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank group.

The Vatican on Friday sought to explain its presence for the first time on a US list of countries that are a potential hub for money laundering, saying it was only natural to be included given its recent efforts to conform to international standards.

The UK Foreign Office informed on Friday that John Freeman has been appointed new Ambassador to Argentina to replace outgoing Ambassador Shan Morgan, who has held the post since 2008.