
Argentine members of the opposition have warned that they will not attend a Friday special session of the Senate and Lower House Foreign Affairs committees to be held in Tierra del Fuego and dedicated to the Malvinas issue unless the overall position of the diplomatic conflict is openly debated.

Falkland Islands lawmaker Mike Summers accused Argentina of acting as a “schoolyard bully” trying to take sweets from others and described as intolerable that a country of that size should be trying to bully a country of 3.000 people into submission. “It’s a country you’d not want to be associated with”.

The Argentine newspaper Ambito Financiero reported on Friday, without revealing sources, that oil exploration rig Leiv Eiriksson, contracted by two oil companies to drill to the south of the Falkland Islands “was found, on Thursday, exploring in Argentine waters”, according to ‘irrefutable’ satellite images.

A US member of the House of Representatives is scheduled to visit the Falkland Islands next week beginning Monday. Republican Congressman F. Jim Sensenbrenner has represented, uninterruptedly, the 5th district of the state of Wisconsin since first elected in 1978 which includes most of the state capital Madison.

Panama on Thursday granted asylum to Ecuadorean newspaper publisher Carlos Perez, one of three executives facing prison after losing a libel suit seen as a key test of press freedoms in Ecuador.

Germany's president resigned Friday in a scandal over favors he allegedly received before becoming head of state, and Chancellor Angela Merkel moved quickly to try and head off a domestic political crisis as she grapples with Europe's debt troubles.

Recently inaugurated Minister for Women policies Eleonora Menicucci has raised eyebrows in chauvinistic Brazil after having publicly admitted to two abortions and bi-sexual experiences

The United Nations postal union reported this week it has acquired what is probably the world’s best-known stamp – the Penny Black – which was issued 172 years ago and shows a profile image of United Kingdom’s Queen Victoria on a black background.

By Dr Tim Stanley - During his recent tour of Argentina and Uruguay as UN ambassador at large for Haiti made some unfortunate statements regarding the Falklands/Malvinas diplomatic dispute arguing that It would be nothing short of bullying, to not sit down and diplomatically negotiate a fair sharing of any resources discovered between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

Nicaragua’s Central Bank President Antenor Rosales quit following a disagreement with President Daniel Ortega over the use of foreign currency reserves to fund a regional bank for the Venezuelan-led bloc of eight nations known as Alba, (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas).