
Facing losing market shares in the Mercosur region, Italy’s Pirelli is to build a new radial truck tyre factory in Argentina involving an investment of 500 million dollars. Construction will begin in 2012, with first-phase capacity on stream in 2014.

Falkland Islands explorer Rockhopper Exploration (RKH) has secured the Ocean Guardian drilling rig for another well in the burgeoning oil province.

BHP Billiton , the world's biggest miner, is close to launching a £2-billion-pound bid for Brazilian iron ore miner Ferrous Resources, the Sunday Times reported. The newspaper, without citing sources, said talks between BHP and Ferrous Resources started earlier this year and had stepped up in recent weeks.

Argos Resources Limited (AIM: ARG.L), the Falkland Islands based exploration company focused on the North Falkland Basin, is pleased to issue a new Competent Persons Report (“CPR”) prepared by Senergy (GB) Ltd (“Senergy”).

Uruguay’s First Lady Lucia Topolansky described statements from former president Tabare Vazquez referred to a possible ‘war hypotheses’ with Argentina over the paper mill conflict as ‘absurd’ and recommended those words shouldn’t be considered more than a simple kids’ anecdote.

President Juan Manuel Santos praised US Congress ratification of a long-stalled free trade agreement with the United States and said it was a historic day for Colombian business and workers.

Problems with the Blackberry smart-phone system appear to have spread to the United States and several South American countries. Users began to report loss of services on Wednesday, with many turning to Twitter to complain about their lack of email.

The United States Congress voted Wednesday on a bipartisan basis to pass long delayed free-trade bills with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

Argentina called on Latin America to promote inter-trade among the region’s countries replacing the almost 460 billion dollars of manufactured goods from the rest of the world imported in 2010.

The US city of Harrisburg - capital of the state of Pennsylvania - has filed for bankruptcy, making it the first state capital to do so. Harrisburg faces debts of 300 million dollars and has struggled to pay for services.