
Ministers have lost track of around 40,000 migrants with no right to be in Britain, it has been revealed. The Home Office admitted the illegal immigrants should have left the country more than six years ago but could still be here.

The death toll of a weekend shootout in Rio do Janeiro shanty towns between police forces and drug dealers climbed to 25 with the discovery of several bodies, --one of them in a supermarket cart--, and the death of a third police officer from a downed helicopter.

The same way some countries want non intervention assurances from Colombia, Bogotá is also asking for certainties that its neighbours will not grant bases or refuge to guerrillas or the drugs trade, said Defence minister Gabriel Silva in an interview with the Brazilian media.

It wasn’t an issue during the electoral campaign trail and hardly mentioned in political rallies but Mercosur is high in the agenda of whoever wins next Sunday’s presidential election in Uruguay.

British leading finance figures from the City of London met on Monday at the historic Drapers Hall to hear Chief Minister Peter Caruana’s message who said Gibraltar was fully committed and on time to meet the criteria being sent by G20 countries for offshore centres to continue in business centred on financial issues related to offshore centres and meeting the G20 criteria.

The Nicaraguan Supreme Court has lifted a constitutional ban on re-election, clearing the way for President Daniel Ortega to run again in 2011 elections. The court's decision followed an appeal by Mr Ortega and a group of mayors.
In July, Mr Ortega said publicly he favoured allowing people the right to seek consecutive terms.

British Minister for Europe Chris Bryant commented on the strong ties that exist between the UK and Gibraltar during the Gibraltar Day reception in the Guildhall of the City of London on Monday October 19th.

In mid-September, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton critiqued Venezuela’s leader Hugo Chavez for his ongoing purchases of mostly Russian military equipment, arguing that this could trigger an arms race in South America. The statement has added fuel to the ongoing discussions about what form South America’s rearmament is taking and what this could come to mean for the security of the region.

A much awaited brief but significant embrace between the two main leaders of Uruguay’s ruling coalition took place Monday in the port of Montevideo, an event which should help the incumbent candidate in the run up to Sunday’s presidential election.

Uruguay’s Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a law that exempted military and police personnel involved in human rights abuses during the country’s military dictatorship which extended from June 1973 to March 1985.