
Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal constitutional chamber endorsed the postponement of Hugo Chavez inauguration scheduled for Thursday and ruled that the cancer-stricken leader remained as the constitutional president of the country since he was re-re-elected and was granted a leave of absence for medical reasons by the National Assembly.

Brazilian prosecutors will likely investigate former President Lula da Silva's alleged involvement in a vote-buying scheme in Congress that led to the conviction of several of his closest aides for corruption, two newspapers reported.

Venezuela will postpone Thursday's presidential inauguration due to President Hugo Chávez' continuing health problems, the government announced on Tuesday. Chavez who has dominated Venezuelan politics almost undisputedly since 1999 has not been heard from or seen in public since his Dec. 11 cancer surgery in Cuba.

The United States is concerned for the health of President Hugo Chavez and wishing a speedy recovery, but the succession situation in Venezuela “is an issue for Venezuelans to decide” and it should be done in a manner “that includes all the voices in the discussion”, said State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland on Tuesday.

Uruguayan president Jose Mujica leaves for Caracas “to support the government and people of Venezuela” on Thursday 10 January, the date in which convalescent re-re-elected president Hugo Chavez is supposed to take the oath of office.

Most probably this cruise season 2012/2013 will be remembered not for the record number of calls or visitors (estimated in half a million) but as a new case of Argentine intolerance with the Malvinas Islands in centre stage, writes La Nacion columnist Emiliano Galli.

The US government approved the designation of Cecilia Nahón as the next Argentine Ambassador to the US, leading to her official appointment in the post, according to a release from the Foreign Ministry in Buenos Aires.

Argentina unveiled a new system of export duties on oil shipments that will cut levies as the government seeks to attract investment to revive stagnant production. The change means energy companies will receive 70 dollars per barrel of exported oil, up from 42 previously. Argentina controls the price of oil exports in order to guarantee domestic supply.

The death by beating of a 12 year old indigenous Qom child in the north of Argentina had shocked public opinion following on another incident less than a month ago when a gendarme run over an indigenous grandmother and a ten month old baby girl.

With general elections scheduled in November, Falkland Island politicians are anxiously awaiting the recommendations of a Commission advising on the full-time or part-time status of elected representatives going forward, according to a piece published by the Jamaica Observer.