
Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was elected mayor of Chicago in the most competitive city hall election in more than two decades. Emanuel, who is also a former congressman, trumped five rivals with 55% of the vote.

U.S. gross domestic product expanded at an annualized rate of 2.8% in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared with an earlier estimate of 3.2% GDP growth, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Unite States officials said they would continue to claim the US Air Force aircraft cargo seized in Argentina and rejected point blank pressures on embassy officials from Argentina’s Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman to abstain from comments on the issue with the Argentine press.

In what is considered a milestone victory for US radical conservatives the Wisconsin state Assembly approved a Republican proposal to strip public sector unions of most collective bargaining rights despite fierce objections from Democrats and labour unions.

After the US Department of State official Philip Crowley tweeted that his country “wanted his (seized) stuff back,” the Argentine Foreign Ministry issued Wednesday a press statement in which it assured that it still awaits “a satisfactory response” to the formal complaint sent to the US embassy.

Brazil would receive a significant technology transfer if it buys US-made fighter jets, a US Defence Department official said, seeking to ease concerns before Brazil selects a winning bidder.

The US State Department released a press statement detailing the content of the cargo seized by Argentine authorities in the US Air Force plane case, and said that despite a “discrepancy regarding the serial number of one of the weapons, the quantity and type of weapon was consistent with the official manifest” provided to Argentine officials.

United States prices rose 0.4% in January compared with the previous month, mostly due to rising food and fuel prices. The rate of change was the same as seen in December.

Paraguay expressed deep concern about “Brazilian dominance” in South America, reveals a diplomatic cable exposed by Wikileaks and reproduced this week by the Brazilian portal ‘Opera Mundi’.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip Crowley assured that the US government “has no reason to apologize” to Argentina in the case of the “sensitive materials” that were seized in a US Air Force plane by the local government last week, amid accusations of “attempting to smuggle surveillance and communications equipment.”