
Families and friends of sailors serving on board HMS Edinburgh and HMS St Albans gathered at Portsmouth Naval Base on Friday, 2 December, to greet their loved ones returning from overseas deployments in the South Atlantic and the Gulf.

The members of the newly former CELAC (Community of Latinamerican and Caribbean States) unanimously approved on Saturday a document in support of Argentina’s claim over the Falklands/Malvinas and anticipated they would request the intervention of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The US top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said President Barack Obama is missing opportunities to strike closer ties with Brazil, allowing China to steal market share from US companies in Latin America’s biggest economy.

Uruguayan president Jose Mujica described the newly formed CELAC as a strong step towards the Americas ‘second independence’ and its integration process.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel meet on Monday in Paris the kick off for a round of talks involving European leaders, the European Central Bank (ECB) and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, culminating in Brussels on Friday with an EU summit.

Former FIFA president Joao Havelange resigned from the International Olympic Committee on Sunday, just days before he was to face an ethics inquiry it was reported by the Sao Paulo press.

Brazil’s Labor and Employment Minister Carlos Lupi resigned Sunday, the sixth Cabinet member to leave President Dilma Rousseff’s government since June amid corruption allegations.

A major controversy exploded in Uruguay when President Jose Mujica was pictured by international news agencies, during the CELAC meeting in Caracas, wearing a green jacket from the Venezuelan Army.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was elected “Woman of the Year” by one of Brazil’s leading magazines, Istoé, which describes the leader as “one of the most influential persons in the world” who also conducted the country to “a superior level”.

Incoming Conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called on all Spaniards to work together to overcome the debt crisis and promised a new economic policy to deal with unemployment that is more than double the European Union average.