
Cuba will open up more of the country's retail services to the private sector next year, allowing Cubans to operate various services such as appliance and watch repair, and locksmith and carpentry shops, official media reported on Monday.

Brazil has overtaken the UK as the world's sixth largest economy according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, CEBR. The latest World Economic League Table also showed Asian countries moving up and European countries falling back.

The head of the International Monetary Fund said that the world economy was in danger and urged Europeans to speak with one voice on a debt crisis that has rattled the global financial system.

“We will always maintain our commitment to you on any question of sovereignty because your right to self-determination is the cornerstone of our policy”, said British Prime Minister David Cameron in his Christmas message to the Falkland Islands.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague and Uruguay’s Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro will discuss the Falklands/Malvinas flagged vessels issue on Friday according to a release from the British embassy in Montevideo

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Brazil expanded fourfold between 2005 and last year, from 162.8 billion to 660.5 billion dollars, the country’s central bank said on Thursday.

Maersk Supply Service has contracted Chilean shipyard Asenav, the country’s largest private yard, to build two new offshore vessels, with an option for up to four more.

Chile Lan Airlines planned 3.2 billion dollars acquisition of Tam SA was approved by Brazil’s antitrust regulator, clearing the final regulatory hurdle for the formation of the world’s second-largest carrier.

China should be in no rush to allow Brazil’s new Valemax ships, the world's largest dry bulk carriers, into its ports, as they have not been thoroughly tested and any oil leak from one could be catastrophic, an influential Chinese industry group warned on Tuesday.

Argentina’s Ministry of Industry announced Tuesday an investment of 30 million dollars for the manufacturing of mini-components, notebooks and LCD television sets in the province of Tierra del Fuego, extreme south of the country.