
The people of the non-self governing territories on the United Nations list, like Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, have to be decolonised in accordance with the wishes of those people in exercise of the right of self determination, said Gibraltar Deputy Chief minister Dr. Joseph Garcia during the opening of the academic symposium on “Self-determination, devolution and independence in the 21st century”

Doctors on Friday instructed Argentine President Cristina Fernandez to rest for 48 hours in order to recover from a sore throat. Argentina's presidency said in a statement that the 61-year-old leader is suffering from pharyngitis and had to suspend a public event scheduled for later in the day in order to get some rest.

The strong economy and the good image of the incumbent presidential candidate Tabare Vazquez are not sufficient for Uruguay's ruling coalition Broad Front to ensure a third consecutive mandate next Sunday 26 October, according to the country's main pollsters, who underlined that the election result at this stage is too close and 'unpredictable'.

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff fell ill at the end of a tense and at times bitter televised debate Thursday with challenger Aecio Neves. Rousseff and Social Democrat Neves traded accusations for an hour and a half, after which she began to complain of feeling light-headed as she left the rostrum.

President Cristina Fernandez addressed the country in a national televised broadcast after Argentina’s first geostationary satellite was successfully launched on Thursday afternoon. The head of state thanked all scientists involved in the construction of ARSAT1, and seized the opportunity to slam opposition representatives over their plans for the country.

The ARSAT-1 is Argentina first domestically designed and developed geostationary communications satellite, and its construction and successful launching, on Thursday, was defined by the government as historic.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a loan of up to 42.2 million dollars to help the private sector in Uruguay finance the development, construction, operation and maintenance of a 48.6 MW wind farm and its associated facilities.

A two day symposium entitled “Self-determination, devolution and independence in the 21st century” was opened on Thursday by Gibraltar's Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia at the Garrison Library in the Rock.

Venezuela celebrated on Thursday as a great diplomatic success and a victory of Hugo Chavez, having been voted by the UN General Assembly to join the Security Council for two years as a non permanent member.

In three rounds of voting on Thursday the United Nations General Assembly elected Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela to serve as non-permanent members on the Security Council for two-year terms beginning on 1 January 2015.