Topics of Particular Importance

The week just gone  

BOLIVIA: Bolivia's voters backed all five of the government's proposals regarding reforms to the oil and gas sectors in a referendum.

HAITI: At a two-day conference of international donors in Washington the international community promised US$1.1bn for the Haiti's interim government. The funds are to help get the country off the ground and ready for democratic elections in 2006.

VENEZUELA: Venezuela's Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) announced that the number of registered voters in the country stood at 13,893,322 as of 10 July - a rise of over a million from June's figure of 12.5m.

MEXICO: Two of Mexico's biggest drug cartels agreed to join forces in order to protect their interests in the illegal narcotics industry.

BRAZIL: The US-based risk-consultancy firm Kroll was accused of spying on senior officials in the government of President Lula da Silva, as part of a probe into a heated dispute between two major players in the telecommunications sector.