Greece has defended a controversial deal that may have masked the extent of its budget woes and has annoyed the European Union. The 2001 debt-swap deal with Goldman Sachs was legal under EU rules, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told the Greek parliament.
Chile’s President-elect Sebastian Piñera affirmed that his government will strongly defend human rights once taking power on March 11 by giving much more attention to Cuba than did his predecessors from the centre-left Concertacion coalition.
DRILLING in Falklands waters will go ahead as planned despite an Argentine decree aimed at handicapping shipping movement between the Islands and South America. From London British Foreign and Commonwealth Minister Chris Bryant reiterated that “we have no doubt about our sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and we're clear that the Falkland Islands Government is entitled to develop a hydrocarbons industry within its waters”.
Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner defended her decision to place stronger controls on navigation and shipping within the Falklands called on the United Nations to force the United Kingdom to come through on negotiations over the sovereignty of that territory.
Seventy journalists were killed in 2009, making it the worst year since records began 30 years ago, the Committee to Protect Journalists says. A massacre of 31 journalists in the Philippines broke the old record of 67 deaths, set only in 2007.
President Hugo Chavez's government said it is not interested in buying electricity from neighbouring Colombia despite Venezuela's struggles with severe energy shortages.
The Argentine government’s announcement on Tuesday that all cargo navigating between Argentina and Falklands/Malvinas Islands “will require previous authorization” received a quick and energetic response from the British government through its embassy in Buenos Aires.
Former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner (2003/2007) is scheduled to reappear in a political rally next week for the launching of his presidential pre-campaign, the first such appearance since he underwent an emergency and delicate surgery in his carotid earlier in the month.
The cost of rebuilding Haiti’s homes, schools, roads and other infrastructure could soar to nearly 14 billion US dollars according to a new study by economists at the Inter-American Development Bank.
Mercosur and the European Union could be signing a cooperation and free trade agreement, although not in its final version, next May during the two continents summit in Madrid, according to the Brazilian Foreign Affairs minister Celso Amorim