
Rescuers are searching waters deep in the Atlantic for a French airliner which disappeared in a storm early on Monday. The search, involving ships and planes from many nations, was part-suspended overnight, but aircraft with monitoring equipment continued to scour the sea.

Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo is scheduled to arrive in Havana on Tuesday for a two-day visit to Cuba, making him the tenth Latinamerican leader, so far this year, to meet with Cuban president Raul Castro and possibly his ailing brother Fidel.

Former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner who is running for a seat in the Lower House in this month’s mid term elections is ahead in all public opinion polls, although closely followed by the main opposition candidate Francisco de Narvaez.

The powerful Argentine Industrial Union, UIA, has called on its Mercosur peers to impede Venezuela’s incorporation to Mercosur in reprisal for the nationalization spree launched by President Hugo Chavez.

Brazilian public opinion is split almost equally on the re-election of President Lula da Silva for a second period, according to the latest poll published in Sao Paulo. Lula da Silva one of Brazil’s most popular leaders in decades has a support of 69% but a constitutional reform is needed if he is to run again in 2010.

The Organization of American States, OAS, secretary general Jose Miguel Insulza said he was optimistic that an agreement to lift the suspension on Cuba can be reached at the 39th general assembly which officially begins Tuesday in Honduras.

Shock waves of the financial crisis and its impact on the real economy have reached the United States Dow Jones Industrial Average which announced Monday the replacing of two iconic shares from its thirty blue chips index, announced Dow Jones & Company.

A left-wing former television journalist, Mauricio Funes, was sworn-in Monday as president of El Salvador. President Funes heads the FMLN, the former Marxist rebels who fought a 12-year civil war against US-backed governments until 1992.

In his first official visit to China since becoming Treasury Secretary, Mr Geithner told politicians and academics in Beijing that he still supports a strong US dollar, and insisted that the trillions of dollars of Chinese investments would not be unduly damaged by the economic crisis.

Support for the Britain’s ruling Labour party has plunged by 10 points in the past month and the party now trails the Tories by 22% and is running neck and neck with the Liberal Democrats, according to a new poll.