At least 50 people were injured on Friday in a clash between supporters and opponents of Bolivian President Evo Morales' government, according local press reports.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has dismissed suggestions that Cuban leader and ally Fidel Castro has cancer, but said he was fighting a serious illness.
Escalating mutual recriminations and complaints between Argentina and Uruguay signaled the first day of deliberations at the Mercosur ministerial meeting in Brasilia in the same week that the group officially inaugurated its Parliament.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro met U.S. ambassador William Brownfield, seeking to ease years of diplomatic tension as President Hugo Chavez prepares to begin a second, six-year term.
Uruguay's Foreign Affairs minister Reinaldo Gargano said Uruguayan farmers are interested in remaining in Mercosur in spite of the growing difficulties to solve the asymmetries between big and small country members and bilateral disputes.
South Korea's Ban Ki-Moon was sworn in on Thursday, before the 192-member General Assembly, as the next United Nations Secretary-General while outgoing Kofi Annan who held the job for ten years was given a prolonged tribute.
With mounting tension between the Bolivian government and four of the country's nine provinces pressing for regional autonomy, Venezuela's ambassador caused a political seism when he admitted the possibility of sending Venezuelan troops in support of the administration of President Evo Morales.
Despite constant trade disputes Mercosur this Thursday found respite and motive to celebrate with the official inauguration of the block's Parliament in Brazil.
The Chilean government announced Sunday that the deceased dictator General Augusto Pinochet will be receiving honors of a former Commander in chief of the Army, and not of head of state or national mourning.