
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who was mocked for his loopy signature, has offered a more legible version. His new sign-off, on a recent Treasury report, showed an attempt to lay out the letters more clearly.

The White House announced that Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and Chile’s President Sebastian Piñera will travel to Washington in June and meet with President Barack Obama. The White House also said that Vice President Joe Biden’s next week will visit Brazil and Colombia with a stop in Trinidad and Tobago.

The US economy showed last month why it remains the envy of industrialized nations: in the face of tax increases and federal spending cuts, employers added a solid 165,000 jobs in April, and the unemployment rate dropped to a four-year low of 7.5%.

By John C.K. Daly - The US currently imports more than 80% of the lithium it uses, with the silvery metal winding up in batteries from cell phones to electric cars.

President Barack Obama gave his blessing to a new security arrangement with Mexican leader Enrique Peña Nieto, in which Mexico will make reducing violence a priority over hunting drug cartel kingpins in the war against organized crime. The two presidents said they also want to step up trade and business ties that have been overshadowed by the battle against drug trafficking.

President Barack Obama leaves on Thursday for Mexico and Costa Rica, on a strategic mission to deepen trade ties and jobs’ creation but also hoping to discuss US immigration reform, security threats and drug wars.

President Evo Morales expelled a US development agency from Bolivia, marking the latest confrontation between Washington and a bloc of populist governments in Latin America.

“Under the corrupt populist government of President Cristina Fernandez Argentina is back on the road to ruin” is the kick off for an extremely critical report to be discussed by the US Congress and which was drafted by Douglas Farah, senior research fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Centre under the heading of “Back to the future”.

The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday announced that the redesigned 100 dollars note will begin circulating on October 8, 2013. This note, which incorporates new security features such as a blue, 3-D security ribbon, will be easier for the public to authenticate but more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate.

The United States Mint has temporarily suspended sales of one-tenth ounce American Gold Eagle bullion coins. The suspension was indicated late Tuesday within a memo distributed to authorized purchasers citing recent strong demand for the gold bullion coins.