
Ruling-party presidential candidate Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday at the childhood home of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez that he felt that his deceased mentor appeared to him in the form of a “little bird”, blessed him and made a strong call ‘on to (electoral) battle’.

The Uruguayan Senate voted overwhelmingly, 23-8, in favor of a same-sex marriage measure Tuesday, which now must return to the Lower House before it is finally approved and signed by President Jose Mujica who has indicated he supports the measure.

At least eight people are reported dead after torrential rain and powerful winds battered Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires and surrounding neighbourhoods flooding streets, knocking out power, downing trees and damaging homes and cars, officials said Tuesday. An estimated 350.000 people have been affected by the floods.

A diplomatic ‘gaffe’ referred to the Falklands/Malvinas Islands and the recent referendum seems to have been committed by the British embassy in Colombia, gaining great display in the Argentine media.

In full half page white and blue ads the Argentine embassy in Montevideo expressed on Tuesday how grateful it is to Uruguay for its support in the Malvinas Islands claim and for having been one of the first countries to reject the ‘legitimacy and publicity stunt’ of the ‘pseudo-referendum’ recently held in the Falklands.

The 193-nation UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the first-ever treaty on global arms trade that seeks to regulate the 70 billion dollars international business in conventional arms ranging from light weapons to battle tanks and warships.
There were 154 votes in favour, 3 against and 23 abstentions.

President Cristina Fernandez announced on Tuesday that 91 next of kin of Argentine combatants buried in NN graves at the Falkland Islands Darwin memorial have agreed and signed to have the remains DNA tested and clearly identified.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez marked Tuesday's 31st anniversary of the start of the Falklands War by again demanding that Britain agree to discuss sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands.

An estimated 11 million Argentines or 26.9% out of a population of 40 million live in poverty according to the Social Observatory from the Argentine Catholic University, (UCA) based on a survey taken at the end of last year. However according to Argentina questioned stats’ office Indec, in the second half of 2012, poverty was down to 5.4% of the population equivalent to 2.2 million poor.

US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will cost taxpayers up to 6 trillion dollars or 75.000 dollars for every US household, “the most expensive wars in US history,” a new report has revealed, adding that these campaigns will dominate future federal budgets “for decades to come”.