
Colombia's FARC rebels cannot be submitted to the same judicial processes as common criminals under a possible peace deal, the Marxist group said on Friday. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) made the comments after President Juan Manuel Santos said in an interview that the biggest hurdle to signing peace would be getting the group to agree to face justice after 50 years of war.

Brazilian police arrested on Friday three former congressmen broadening their corruption investigation beyond state-run oil giant Petrobras to state lender Caixa Economica Federal and the federal health ministry.

Argentine ambassador in London, Alicia Castro complained about being summoned to the Foreign Office over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands dispute revealing she asked the British official if it was “an expression of British humor or a political paradox”, since the UK has failed to comply with international law for the last five decades.

US President Barack Obama and Cuba's Raul Castro on Friday shook hands and sat near each other at the historic Panama Summit of the Americas, a new milestone in efforts to shed decades of animosity. Obama and Castro greeted each other as UN chief Ban Ki-moon looked on, before taking their seats with other regional leaders at a Panama City convention center.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez is attending the VII Summit of the Americas in Panama City where she is expected on Saturday to strongly criticize the United Kingdom over the 'militarization' of the Falklands/Malvinas and revelations of massive espionage of Argentina by London.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, will provide homes to six former detainees of the US military prison in Guantanamo who have struggled to resettle in Uruguay, the country`s President said on Friday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez have held talks, in the highest level meeting between the two countries in more than half a century. The two were involved in closed-door discussions after arriving in Panama for a summit.

Fitch Ratings lowered Thursday the outlook on Brazil's investment grade BBB rating to negative, warning that government efforts to turn around the economy risked getting derailed. The Brazilian economy, the world's seventh-largest, stagnated with just 0.1% growth last year as the drag of rising inflation erased the effect of hosting the football World Cup in June and July and gearing up for the Rio Olympics next year.

Brazil's State-run oil company Petrobras has purged corrupt managers and put a graft scandal behind it, while hitting record output levels from offshore deposits, President Dilma Rousseff said Thursday. The indictment of former senior executives of Petrobras the investigation of dozens of political allies of Rousseff in the multibillion-dollar kickback scandal has thrown her government into crisis and undermined investor confidence in Brazil.

The UK Foreign Office summoned Argentine Ambassador Alicia Castro to object recent remarks regarding the Falkland Islands by President Cristina Fernandez and the diplomat based in London. An FCO spokesperson said that Britain has no doubt about its sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and surrounding maritime areas, nor about the Falkland Islanders' right to decide their own future.