
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

The Argentine government made public Tuesday a decree that requires prior approval for ships sailing between Argentina and the Falkland Islands. The approval will be needed for vessels travelling “or carrying goods directly or indirectly” between the mainland and the Islands, announced cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez during a press conference at Government House.

Women lead the two houses of the new Uruguayan parliament (99 Deputies and 30 Senators), which was sworn in on Monday following on the electoral results of October 29, when the ruling coalition again managed to garner a majority of seats as in 2004.

European Union regulators ordered Greece to disclose details of currency swaps after an inquiry by the country’s Finance Ministry uncovered a series of agreements with banks that it may have used to conceal mounting debts.