
The US Federal Reserve may have underestimated the looming 2007 global financial crisis released transcripts from its meetings that year have shown. The documents suggested Fed Governor Ben Bernanke wanted to hold off from addressing rising panic in the markets.

Uruguay will open on Monday 21 January its diplomacy archives to that Malvinas war veterans can consult classified information referred to the South Atlantic conflict when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in April 1982.

The possibility of a re-re-election of Argentine president Cristina Fernandez is back in the political agenda, this time spurred by a member of the Lower House with close contacts with trade unions and father of the General Manager of the now re-nationalized Argentine flag carrier Aerolineas Argentinas

Barack Obama has officially been sworn in for his second term as US president in a small ceremony at the White House. Although the US Constitution requires the oath of office to be taken by noon on 20 January, that falls on a Sunday so the public inauguration will take place on Monday.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos opened the door to a popular vote on any peace accord negotiated and signed with FARC rebels, but rejected a guerrilla demand to change the constitution if a deal is clinched.

Renato Machado Gonçalves, the manager and joint owner of Radio Barra FM in Rio de Janeiro state, has become the first journalist to be killed in the western hemisphere in 2013. He was gunned down as he left his home in the north of the state last week.

The Falkland Islands elected government has confirmed the dates and final wording of the referendum on the political status of the Islands, based on their right to self determination and to counter Argentina’s repeated calls for negotiations over sovereignty.

If at the coming referendum, the Falkland Islands wish to remain a UK Overseas Territory, retaining the current status and preserving the right to self-determination, which would allow the Falkland Islands to review its status at any time, “this could include full independence in the future”, points out the booklet “On the future of the Falkland Islands”.

President Cristina Fernandez thanked Indonesia for the “permanent support” extended to Argentina in the “Malvinas cause” and reiterated that Argentina is only asking for the UK to respect and abide the United Nations resolution, but at the same time attacked multilateral organizations such as the UN and WTO for “favouring the great powers”.

The Organization of American States will be sending observers to the coming presidential and legislative elections in Ecuador next month and to that effect OAS and Ecuador signed the agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of Observers which provides the conditions for the work of the Electoral Observation Mission.