
Britain plans to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan next year, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said, as pressure mounts to end British involvement in the costly and unpopular war.

Brazil’s central bank president Alexandre Tombini refuted on Monday arguments that the US expansionist monetary policy do not harm emerging countries such as Brazil.

Argentina’ Defence Ministry announced on Monday that two top Navy officers had been disciplined for their responsibility in plotting the course of the training frigate ARA Libertad currently retained in Ghana on an injunction from a US based hedge fund and following a failed plea last Thursday.

Condemned by recession, almost a million persons have left Spain since January last year according to a report from the country’s National Statistics Institute, INE, which also points out that the trend has intensified in the first nine months of this year.

Brazil’s poor infrastructure was again confirmed over the weekend at one of Sao Paulo international airports, Viracopos, when a damaged cargo aircraft blocked activities forcing 450 flight cancellations and overloading the already saturated capacity of other air terminals.

In an anticipation of Tuesday’s qualifier between Argentina and Chile for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, UK ambassador in Chile Jon Benjamin got muddled in a “twitter incident” involving the Falklands/Malvinas for which later he had to apologize.

An Argentine video game allows players to compare the prices used by the National Statistics and Census Institute, Indec, to measure inflation with those consumers say they pay, a pastime that has caused angry reactions among players when they see the gap.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has defended the central bank's measures to bolster the US economy. Brazil has said US monetary easing to keep interest rates low and weaken the dollar has hurt emerging economies. And IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned on Sunday of consequent asset bubbles developing in emerging nations.

Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley have won the 2012 Nobel Prize in economics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the US academics for their work on the “theory of stable allocations and practice of market design”.

A referendum on Scottish independence will take place before the end of 2014 following an agreement signed on Monday by UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Scottish leader Alex Salmond.