
French President Francois Hollande has said he wants the UK to stay in the EU - and warned of the consequences for immigration and the economy of leaving. A French government minister earlier suggested his country could end UK border controls in Calais.

Executives from Brazil's second-largest engineering company, Andrade Gutierrez have testified that the company paid suppliers for President Dilma Rousseff's 2010 electoral campaign off the books, newspaper a Folha de S.Paulo reported on Tuesday.

Argentine president Mauricio Macri is scheduled to receive in a week's time the European Union head of foreign affairs, Federica Mogherini who is expected to announce that all is ready to begin, next April, formal negotiations for the long-delayed trade and cooperation agreement between Mercosur and the EU.

Brazil's central bank kept interest rates on hold on Wednesday as widely expected, opting to avoid inflicting more harm on an economy mired in its worst recession in decades despite a surge in inflation. In a split vote, the bank's monetary policy committee, Copom, kept its benchmark Selic rate at 14.25% for the fifth straight time.

A judge sided with Argentina in its debt standoff on Wednesday, agreeing to let orders protecting creditors expire so that large U.S. hedge funds and smaller entities and people can be paid at least US$6.2 billion to satisfy settlements reached over the last month.

Following on Donald Trump's sweeping win on super-Tuesday Republican strategists are planning support for Ohio governor John Kasich so he can take his state presidential primary on 15 March and similarly with hopeful Senator Marco Rubio in his home state of Florida.

Paul Singer, the influential hedge fund billionaire from New York who endorsed Marco Rubio in October, is set to be named as his national finance chairman according to various US press reports. Singer is well known in Argentina for bringing a lawsuit against the government in the holdouts dispute.

A UN watchdog group criticized Ban Ki-moon for his blessings to the UN committee charged with “decolonizing” among others, the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar, at the same time as the 24-nation group elected mass murdering Syria and human rights abusing Venezuela to leadership posts.

By Leopoldo López (*) - Two years ago I was imprisoned for calling for a constitutional, democratic and peaceful change in the Venezuelan government. Our plan was called La Salida, “the exit.”

The Rolling Stones will perform a free outdoor concert in Havana on March 25, the band's publicist announced on Tuesday, a milestone event in a country where the Castro brothers' regime once banned the group's music as an ideological deviation.