
The 800,000 dollars cash suitcase scandal extending from Miami to Caracas and Buenos Aires could send three Venezuelans and a Uruguayan, if convicted, to a US federal prison for up to ten years and a 250.000 US dollars fine.

European Union leaders have signed a treaty in Portugal's capital that is expected to greatly alter the way the 27-nation body operates. The treaty creates an EU president and a more powerful foreign policy chief.

The Brazilian government has suffered a major defeat over a key financial transactions tax which accounts for 20 billion US dollars in annual revenue. The bill fell four votes short of at least 49 needed in the Senate to renew the tax, known as the CPMF.

The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, ruled Thursday that three Caribbean Sea islands disputed by Nicaragua and Colombia belong to the latter country because a 1928 treaty between the two nations settled the issue.

Headlines: Historic rock arrives at memorial; Monte mishap causes Norwegian Dream to cancel; Access to remote islands restricted.

Predictably prospective Falkland Islands councillors condemned the Argentine claim to the Islands in electioneering speeches Wednesday evening.

Since taking office last Monday, the administration of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina's first elected woman president, on two occasions reiterated its claim over the Falkland Islands and called on the United Kingdom to abandon its policy of no dialogue and resume sovereignty talks.

President Nestor Kirchner administration was a success in pulling Argentina out from the 2001/02 collapse but President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner must take the following step and that is making Argentina again an international player, said Thomas Shannon Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

Reality is reality and the Falklands are British was the first UK reaction to a protest letter from the Argentine government rejecting the inclusion of disputed (British) Overseas Territories in the Lisbon European Treaty which was signed by EU leaders this Thursday in the Portuguese capital.

Marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening for signature of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Deputy Secretary-General called on States to work together to protect the marine environment which is under increasing pressure from human activities.