Mercopress

Literature Nobel Prize Mario Vargas Llosa blamed Peronism for the self-destruction which is leading Argentina to underdevelopment, poverty and populism, and compared the dominating political movement trajectory to that which took Adolf Hitler to power.

President Cristina Fernández highlighted the “magnificent opportunity” Argentina and Angola had in coming together on future business transactions, particularly in the face of the global financial crisis, while addressing a meeting with businessmen in Angloa where she is on a three day official visit.

European Commission and European Central Bank are making contingency plans for a possible Greek exit from the euro, an EU commissioner says.

The US mega-bank JPMorgan Chase & Co loss from derivatives trading may widen to 5 billion dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. CEO Jamie Dimon personally approved the strategy that led to the trades, without monitoring how they were executed, the newspaper said.

A group of United Nations independent experts called on the European Union (EU) to take the lead in promoting the adoption of a global financial transaction tax that would offset the costs of the current economic crisis and protect basic human rights.

United Nations senior officials stressed the importance of establishing a new paradigm for growth that ensures social inclusiveness, job opportunities for all, and more accountability from the financial sector to tackle the ongoing global economic crisis.

A former Argentine central bank president warned that if the economy follows on the current course, a “de facto devaluation” is round the corner because of the growing gap between the official and parallel exchange rates for the US dollar.

Brazilian Foreign Affairs minister Antonio Patriota revealed that Brasilia is following closely the situation in Venezuela because of the medical condition of President Hugo Chavez, to whom he sent a message of quick recovery.

Billionaire Warren Buffett's company is making another foray into US newspapers, agreeing to buy 63 newspapers from Media General Inc for 142 million dollars.

Ratings agency Moody's has cut the credit ratings of 16 Spanish banks, a further blow to a country that is struggling to deal with the bad debts of its banking sector. It also cut the debt rating on Santander UK, a subsidiary of the Spanish banking giant.

Chile’s central bank kept its key interest rate unchanged at 5% for a fourth consecutive month as surging domestic demand and deterioration in the global economy leave little scope to change monetary policy.

More than one billion tourists will take a trip this year crossing an international boundary, a threshold never before reached, UN officials told a meeting tourism ministers gathering in Mexico this week.

Argentine President Cristina Fernández is on a three-day visit to Angola to promote trade and investments particularly exchanging food for the African country’s oil. Friday morning she is scheduled to meet her counterpart Jose Eduardo Dos Santos.

For the first time, Argentina has a Jewish president, at least temporarily. Beatriz Rojkes, the provisional president of the Argentine Senate, is in charge of the government for several days because both President Christina Fernandez and Vice-President Amado Boudou are overseas.

Argentina's Petersen Group missed a 400 million dollars payment to creditor banks on Wednesday, which could allow them to seize the shares of oil company YPF backing the loan.

Brazil’s Supreme Court voted unanimously to permit a quota system that would favour Afro-descendants in entering universities, ending an eight-year legal battle.

A freedom of information law has taken effect in Brazil, challenging an embedded culture of secrecy and bureaucracy. Proponents, including President Dilma Rousseff, said the measure is nothing short of a revolution for a system that has kept tight control over information for decades.

Uruguay’s ambition to have 1.2GW of wind power in operation by 2015 may have to be delayed for several years because logistical problems and tightening returns could make some projects unfeasible.

A last-minute lobbying blitz by farmers in Argentina's top grains-producing province stopped lawmakers from approving a tax increase that some growers said would force them to sell their fields.

Spain’s Foreign Affairs minister Jose Garcia Margallo said that Madrid supports negotiations for a free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union on a “region to region” basis, back stepping from his proposal last April to exclude Argentina following the seizure of YPF from Repsol.