Ecuador's Foreign Trade Minister Tomas Peribonio said on Monday that the banana tariff that the European Union planned to impose on his country was "discriminatory."

The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Integration System on Monday elected Venezuelan lawyer Floria Mara Caricote Lovera as its new permanent secretary.

Four guerillas were killed and 17 others captured in a series of military operations conducted by the Colombian army over the weekend, Colonel Paulino Coronado of the Colombian army's 30th brigade said on Monday.

Guatemala sent 20 more soldiers to join the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti, Guatemalan army spokesman Jorge Ortega said on Monday, according to news from Guatemala City, capital of the Central American nation.

Vietnamese State President Nguyen Minh Triet has approved a list of 1,036 convicts, who are serving their imprisonment sentences or whose sentences are pending or postponed, being eligible for being released ahead of their terms.

The number of Australians who believe it was worth going to war in Iraq hit record low, according to a latest opinion poll.

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov was re-elected in a runoff election against Volen Siderov, leader of the nationalist Attack party, Bulgaria's Central Electoral Commission announced on Monday.

The United States called on Pyongyang to return to the stalled six-party talks, designed to solve nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, a spokesman for the U.S. state department said on Monday.

Mexican President Vicente Fox said on Monday that he considered as "transparent" the operation of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) to retake Oaxaca City's historical center.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi reiterated on Monday that Italian troops will withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year.