
Argentina’s worldwide court battles against the hedge funds which did not accept the restructuring of its defaulted debt and are after the country’s assets, has gained another ally, the president of the World Economic Forum, (WEF) Klaus Schwab.

A number of senior figures at the Federal Reserve want the US central bank to stop or slow down its bond-buying program well before the end of 2013. December minutes of its interest rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) showed that several of its twelve members made the call.

President Sebastián Piñera is considering declaring the state of emergency in the Araucanía region, in southern Chile, where six arson attacks which cost the lives of two people took place since Friday, Interior Minister Andrés Chadwick said.

Argentina’s Civil and Commercial Court decided to lift the January judicial recess as requested by the administration of President Cristina Fernandez and also granted the cautionary measure appeal to the Argentine Rural Society (SRA) that blocks the presidential decree over the taking over of La Rural grounds in Palermo neighbourhood.

Consumer prices in Uruguay ended the year at 7.48% after recording the lowest December percentage in forty years: a negative 0.73%. However analysts and consultants anticipate that inflation in the first quarter of 2013 will remain above an annualized 8%.

Argentina is among the world’s countries which experienced the highest inflation in the last five years based on average data from the country’s private consultants and the IMF. The double digit inflation was estimated at 21.3%, an approximate average for the 2008/2012 period, and compiled by IERAL an Argentine business think-tank.

North-east Brazil is suffering its worst drought in decades, threatening hydro-power supplies in an area prone to blackouts and potentially slowing economic growth in one of the country's emerging agricultural frontiers.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez' formal swearing-in for a new six-year term scheduled for January 10 can be postponed if he is unable to attend due to his struggle to recover from cancer surgery, his vice-president said on Friday.

Argentina’s dredgers union assured a safe passage for when the Navy’s flag ship ARA Libertad arrives to Mar del Plata next 9 January to a big reception party headed by President Cristina Fernandez. There were concerns that the depth of the access channel wouldn’t be enough.

In a full page advert published exclusively in Friday’s Buenos Aires Herald, in English and Spanish, leading British tabloid The Sun admonishes President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner with a “Hands off!” from the Falkland Islands, in response to the Argentine president’s letter to Prime Minister David Cameron, published on Wednesday in several British dailies.