
Greek Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos has accused Germany of failing to compensate Greece for Nazi occupation during World War II. Mr Pangalos made the remarks during a wide-ranging BBC interview about Greece's financial difficulties.

The head of the International Monetary Fund said it would be “intellectually healthy to explore” the possible creation of an international reserve currency that would serve as an alternative to the US dollar-.
Leaving aside much of the London media rhetoric about a build-up or even a possible re-edition of 1982, between Argentina and the UK over the Falklands and South Atlantic islands sovereignty, The Economist adopts a more common sense and pragmatic attitude about the controversy over oil exploration in the South Atlantic.

The British Ministry of Defence strongly denied Thursday any incident in the Falklands territorial waters involving a Royal Navy South Atlantic patrol and an Argentine Navy corvette, as reported in some London sensational media.

Uruguayan president elect Jose Mujica will hold a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Monday morning, before the official inauguration, and will take advantage of her presence to invite US President Barack Obama to visit Uruguay.

Chile’s Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, increased production in 2009 for the first time in five years, helped by a new mine. The company also generated an impressive surplus over the last four years.

Spain said it deeply deplores the death of Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo and regrets that the human rights situation on the Castro brothers ruled island has led to this very terrible outcome.
Zapata, 42, died Tuesday at a Havana hospital after an 85-day hunger strike.

Peruvian Finance Minister Mercedes Araoz welcomed the participation of Peruvian private pension funds, AFP, in Thursday auction of a 6.4% stake (21.83 million shares) of Chilean flagship airline.

Argentina’s Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana as had been anticipated on Wednesday formally asked United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to interfere in the unilateral decisions Britain has made regarding the Falklands/Malvinas Islands issue and highlighted that from now on everyone has to wait until Ban acts within a good-solicitor framework.

An Argentine federal court kept a hold on the government’s plan to use 6.6 billion US dollars in Central Bank reserves to pay debt, sending the case to the Supreme Court for a final ruling, Argentina’s Court Information Center Web site said.