
Spanish Foreign Affairs minister Jose Garcia-Margallo is seeking to revisit talks on co-operation with the disputed Gibraltar UK Overseas Territory on a new variation of the formulas for talks: a quadripartite forum.

Maria da Gracas Foster, (58), will be head of Brazil’s largest corporation, Petrobras as of next February. This is the first time that the Brazilian oil corporation among the largest in the world will have a woman as CEO.

Fifteen foreign airlines operating from Argentina will have to report to the powerful Home Trade Secretary Guillermo Moreno a proposal to reduce their US dollars overseas remittances particularly to suppliers and services contracted overseas. It is estimated that these airlines remit a billion US dollars annually.

Asia welcomed the Year of the Dragon on Monday with a cacophony of fireworks, hoping the mightiest sign in the Chinese zodiac will usher in the wealth and power it represents.

A member from the Falkland Islands’ elected Legislative Assembly said it’s hard to understand why a country of 45 million people like Argentina insists in threatening a country of 3.000, and underlined there’s not a single Islander who wants to be an Argentine.

So far it’s a psychological war to try and persuade the British to begin Falkland Islands a sovereignty discussion with Argentina but there is nothing to discuss about since the Islanders don’t want to belong to Argentina and that’s it, said UK retired Major General Julian Thompson.

UK arms manufacturer BAE Systems said it was reviewing its warship business but refused to comment on a newspaper report that it was set to close the historic Portsmouth dockyard.

Argentine Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman said that Argentina “is not looking to organize a blockade of the Malvinas” but only wants “to counter British interests” based on the Unasur and Mercosur decisions to bar Falklands’ flagged vessels from having access to regional ports.

Falklands oil industry sources confirmed that the semi-submersible Leiv Eiriksson oil exploration rig has reached Falklands’ waters and should be spudding its first well next Monday.

A review of EU passenger ship safety rules is being stepped up following the Costa Concordia shipwreck off the Italian coast. Europe’s transport Commissioner Siim Kallas announced Friday that the review, which began in 2010, must take full account of the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the cruise vessel Costa Concordia in shallow water a week ago.