
Argentine and Chilean cabinet ministers will be meeting next Thursday in Buenos Aires to advance in the integration process and address an agenda of bilateral issues, according to reports in the Argentine capital.

Brazilian president Lula da Silva reiterated Saturday he has no plans for a third mandate and anticipated he would reject a proposal from members of his won Workers Party for a constitutional amendment that would allow him to run again for president in 2010

Radio stations in Venezuela have begun to fall silent in the wake of government orders to some broadcasters to cease operations. The Circuito Nacional Belfort Network, CNB, station in Caracas was among the first to stop broadcasting Saturday morning. At least four other CNB stations also went off the air.

United States banks in New Jersey, Ohio, Florida, Oklahoma and Illinois were shut, pushing the toll of failed US lenders to 69 this year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was named the receiver of the five banks, the regulator said in e-mailed statements.

Cuban President Raul Castro said he remains ready to talk about everything and anything with the United States but that Cuba’s political system was not on the negotiating table.

Argentine farmers said on Saturday that the camp is “no longer a tame cow to be milked” by a “predatory government” and blasted “inefficiency and wrong policies”.

The leftist Venezuelan government expressed on Friday its support for the draft legislation that contemplates jail sentences for “media offenses,” an idea denounced by journalists’ associations and media executives.

The British law graduates accused of holiday insurance fraud are being held in a Brazilian prison with murderers and drug-traffickers after a judge refused to grant them bail.

The unemployment rate in Magallanes region, extreme south of Chile during the second quarter reached 4.9% which is more than double a year ago (2.2%). However it was down 1.4 percentage points from the previous quarter, making it Chile’s region with the lowest rate of jobless, according to the latest report from the country’s Statistics Office.

Headlines: Westerners’ message to councillors: our livelihood is under threat; We’re progressing BFBS TV options Rendell assures.