
German carmaker Daimler has pleaded guilty to corruption in the US and will pay 185 million US dollars to settle the case. The charges relate to US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into the company's global sales practices.

Energy, trade and bilateral cooperation are the main issues of the agenda that Uruguayan president Jose Mujica will address with his Venezuelan peer Hugo Chavez on Wednesday in Caracas.

British top earners will pay 50p in income tax on each pound of their salary over £150,000 from Tuesday April 6, the start of the new financial year. Previously, the highest rate of income tax payable was 40p on every pound for earnings above £37,400.

Political leaders have headed off on the campaign trail after Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced Tuesday the UK general election would be held on 6 May. He said he would seek a clear mandate to continue the road to recovery, as Labour bids for a fourth term.

Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, CFK and her Uruguayan counterpart José Mujica met Monday afternoon during a surprise visit to the Olivos presidential residence in Buenos Aires.

Argentina formally protested on Monday a possible move by China to block imports of Argentine soybean oil in a trade row that threatens a key export of the country and last year involved almost 1.5 billion US dollars.

Chinese president Hu Jintao will be visiting Brazil, Venezuela and Chile in mid April according to a release from Beijing. From an international summit on nuclear security, April 12/13, President Hu Jintao will travel to Brazil for the second BRIC summit, scheduled from April 14 to 17.

Amid the currency row with the United States, China has indicated that it may adjust its financial policy to take care of Washington's concerns if the White House respects Beijing's core interests in Taiwan and Tibet.

The United States Department is questioning Venezuela's need to buy billions of dollars in weapons from Russia, voicing concern the arms may end up elsewhere in Latin America.

Over two million people live in a thousand shanty towns in the surroundings of Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires in conditions of extreme marginality and precariousness, according to official data released by the weekend press.