
Uruguayan president elect Jose Mujica will hold a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Monday morning, before the official inauguration, and will take advantage of her presence to invite US President Barack Obama to visit Uruguay.

The role of Wall Street firms in deals that may have helped Greece mask its debt woes are under scrutiny in the US, the Federal Reserve chief has said. Ben Bernanke said the Fed and the US financial watchdog were looking into a number of questions related to banks' derivatives arrangements with Greece

United States stocks rose on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve chairman reaffirmed his commitment to keep interest rates low for an extended period to sustain the still fragile recovery. Ben Bernanke told Congress a weak job market and tame inflation warranted keeping rates close to their near-zero level for the time being.

The new Latin American and Caribbean bloc planned without regional neighbours Canada and the United States are consistent with US goals for the region, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday

The United States has a “neutral” stance regarding the question of the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty but recognizes the current British administration of the Islands, said US State Department spokesperson during the daily press conference.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be visiting five Latinamerican countries next week beginning in Uruguay, representing President Barack Obama at the inauguration ceremony of president elect Jose Mujica on March first, according to Washington diplomatic sources.

United States currently has no interest in having US troops stationed and with access to military bases belonging to other Latinamerican countries, such is the case with Colombia said a top Pentagon official during a visit to Nicaragua.

Goldman Sachs defended the 2001 debt-swap deal with Greece that may have allowed the country to mask the extent of its debt woes. Gerald Corrigan, chairman of Goldman Sachs Bank USA, the bank's holding company, said it was consistent with the regulations of the time.

The US Federal Reserve poured cold water on speculation that a surprise hike to its emergency lending rate signalled a change in monetary policy, saying borrowing costs in the economy would remain low.

Alexander Haig, the decorated four- star general and assertive aide to U.S. presidents who declared himself “in control” at the White House after Ronald Reagan was shot, has died. He was 85.