
Thousands of Guatemalans took to the streets on Saturday, demanding the nation's President Otto Perez Molina leave office in the wake of a scandal that claimed his former Vice President Roxana Baldetti.

The theme of this year’s International Day of Families, “Men in Charge?”, highlights the importance of gender equality and children’s rights in contemporary families, said United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in his message.

A retired army general is poised to become Guyana’s new president after a multi-ethnic opposition ¬coalition defeated a party that has been in power for 23 years, officials said. Preliminary results show David Granger and his Partnership for National Unity-Alliance for Change Coalition got nearly 207,000 votes in Monday’s ¬general elections.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff saw allies and members of her own Workers’ Party challenge her in Congress by voting in favor of boosting pension benefits.

Brazilian Finance Minister Joaquim Levy said he expected the country’s economic slowdown to be temporary and that fiscal discipline remained central to ensuring the recovery as a commodity price boom waned. Addressing investors in London, Levy said fiscal discipline was needed to cushion the economy against the inflationary effects of the falling Real currency.

Mercosur countries have reached a basic consensus to look for mechanisms that will allow individual members to negotiate trade agreements outside the block, announced Uruguay's foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa, who has been leading a strong campaign (with Brazilian support) on the issue.

Peru, Brazil and China are moving forward on a transcontinental railway that will cut across the continent, climb the Andes and connect port cities in the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

China will invest 50 billion dollars to help overhaul Brazil's aging infrastructure, the government announced on Thursday, ahead of an official visit by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang next week. Brazil has repeated that it was determined to overhaul its dilapidated roads, railways, airports and ports.

President Cristina Fernandez has questioned accusations against Economy Minister Axel Kicillof over his alleged YPF monthly salary of 400.000 Argentine Pesos (approx 35.000 dollars).

Buenos Aires province governor Daniel Scioli and Interior and Transport Minister Florencio Randazzo will be the only Argentine presidential candidates to compete in the coming August incumbent Victory Front, PASO primaries.