
The World Bank Group (WBG) committed 17.9 billion US dollars in fiscal year 2010 –a slightly higher figure over last year’s record lending of 17.1 billion- to support countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) as they recover from the global financial crisis and resume a path of sustained growth, according to the latest report from the multilateral organization.

China's state news agency Xinhua has launched a 24-hour global news channel in English. Officials said CNC World would present an international vision with a China perspective.

Negotiations for a trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, re-launched this week in Buenos Aires, could not have a second chapter if the Argentine government insists in restrictions to food imports, said the head of the EU delegation.

Cuba has created a climate of fear among political activists and journalists working on the island nation, according to a report released this week by the human rights group Amnesty International.

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner led the swearing-in ceremony of Enrique Meyer as Minister of the newly created Ministry of Tourism. Meyer was Secretary of Tourism but this week the post was upgraded to Ministry.

British Conservative MP Elainor Laing is the new chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Gibraltar Group, a House of Commons spokesman announced Wednesday night. Mrs Laing is no stranger to the Rock as she attended the main National Day rally when it was organised in Casemates Square.

Hollywood Academy Award winning actress Meryl Streep is planning a reunion with her Mamma Mia! director, Phyllida Lloyd: Streep is in talks to play controversial former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Spain's ambitious six-month presidency of the EU was eclipsed by the European debt crisis which thrust the country's fragile economy into the global spotlight and weakened the Spanish government, analysts said.

Argentina’s Foreign Affairs minister Héctor Timerman cautioned that the dispute with Uruguay over the Botnia/UPM pulp mill and its environmental impact can’t be seen as “a football match where one side wins and the other looses”, but rather as a situation where “the peoples of both countries benefit”.

Congressman Indio da Costa of the opposition Democrats party was named Brazilian presidential candidate Jose Serra’a running mate. The move is geared to retake the initiative in the campaign to October 3 presidential polls which now have incumbent Dilma Rousseff ahead.