Stories for March 1st 2007
Brazil grows 2.9%; reserves reach record 100 billion
Brazil's economy expanded 2.9% last year compared to 2.35% in 2005 according to the latest official release on Wednesday. In the fourth quarter GDP increased 1.1% over the third quarter and 3.8% over the same period in 2005, reported the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics.
South Africa looking into windfall tax for mining industry
Mining companies may be required to pay a windfall tax in South Africa if the recommendations of finance minister Trevor Manuel's task team are implemented, South African daily Business Day reported this week.
Brazilian press unconvinced about Lula-Vazquez summit
The promises and expectations of improved relations between Uruguay and Brazil and for Mercosur following the presidential summit in Colonia, Uruguay, don't seem to have convinced the Brazilian press.
Dengue fever forces Paraguay to declare “national emergency”
Faced with 100.000 cases of dengue infection which have also caused several deaths Paraguayan Congress declared this week a 60 days “national emergency” and voted funds to combat the Aedes agypty mosquito which transmits the disease.
Shanghai and Wall Street rebound, but volatility looms
Chinese stock markets rebounded Wednesday following their deepest fall in a decade but most markets in Asia and Europe kept sliding for a consecutive second day amid fears of a slowing of China and the United States economies.
Falklands population, bigger, older & more cosmopolitan
As Bob Dylan once sang, “The times they are a changing” and so, it seems is the typical Falkland Islander.
Bush's visit: Brazil proclaims itself South America's speaker
Brazil would like to see the current relation with United States become something positive for South America and expects that Washington's renewed interest in the hemisphere is based on cooperation and not in the old “intervention” style, said Friday Brazilian Foreign Affairs minister Celso Amorim.
Chilean scientists to record blue whales “conversations”
Marine Biologists from Chile's Blue Whale Center (CBA) have embarked on a new project to record the noises made by endangered blue whales off the coast of southern Chile. They hope to use their recordings to identify individual whales and learn more about how whales communicate with each other.
UN calls on new generation to take better care of planet earth
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Friday on the world's younger generation to take better care of Planet Earth in the face of global warming than his own.
Lula/Vazquez agenda was previously checked by Argentina
The Brazilian initiatives proposed by President Lula da Silva during his Monday summit in Uruguay with his counterpart Tabare Vazquez were previously considered with Argentina, according to reports in the Buenos Aires press.
