
The Falkland Islands government has opened a public consultation on the proposed referendum question on the Falklands Political Status to be held in early 2013. The proposed question was arrived at and agreed by all members of the Legislative Assembly having received expert advice on the issue.

For the first time, the 16 flags of the British Overseas Territories including the Falkland Islands are being flown in Parliament Square, alongside the flags of the Crown Dependencies, to mark a state occasion, reports an official release from the Foreign Office.

Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman announced at Government House in Buenos Aires that new negotiations between diplomatic representatives of Argentina and Iran over the investigation into the 1994 AMIA terrorist attack, will take place before the end of November.

The European Union issued on Wednesday its revised import preference scheme - known as the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) - for developing countries most in need which will take effect from 1 January 2014, revealing that all Mercosur full members, except for Paraguay, will no longer benefit.

The Council of Europe is promoting international co-operation in the field of personal data protection, in particular by encouraging non member states to ratify the Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, also known as Convention 108. Uruguay has started the process for its ratification and therefore may become the first non-Council of Europe member state to accede to the convention.

Bolivia asked visiting Oscar-winner Sean Penn Tuesday to help lobby for La Paz to regain a bit of Pacific coast, and escape the ranks of landlocked states. Evo Morales, the populist president of the arid nation high in the Andes, asked the US actor to help its campaign to press Chile to overhaul treaties that ended a 19th-century war that cost Bolivia its coast and gave the land to Chile.

The president of the Argentine Jewish Community centre, AMIA, Guillermo Borger said that if Iran insists in rejecting any links with the 1994 attack in which 85 people were killed and 300 injured, the current dialogue between Argentina and Teheran on the issue “is over”.

Argentina’s credit rating was cut one level by Standard & Poor’s, which referred to a US appeals court ruling that prevents the country from honouring its debt without also paying holders of its defaulted bonds.

Chilean voters punished the political system with a whooping 60% abstention, and President Sebastián Piñera’s conservative bloc, in municipal elections Sunday, which could be paving the way for the comeback of the left-wing coalition in next year’s presidential ballot.

Argentine President Cristina Fernández was forced to cancel Tuesday’s agenda for 24 hours after doctors diagnosed her with low blood pressure. The president remained at the Olivos residence where, nevertheless she dispatched some daily business with a few ministers.