Stories for January 5th 2009
South Korea and Japan reopen markets to Chilean pork
South Korea and Japan reopened their markets to Chilean pork, according to a release in Seoul from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
Cubans can now build their homes with own private funds
Cubans will be permitted to build their own homes using their own private funds, President Raul Castro announced on Sunday, in the latest reforms to back off the centralized economy hard-line orthodoxy of the past five decades.
Japan calls for no re-fueling of whaling activists' vessels
Japanese whalers are pressing for Australian and New Zealand authorities to refuse port entry to Sea Shepherd anti-whaling activists “terrorist ship” when they return from the Antarctic to refuel.
Brazil beefs up troops and forts to protect Amazon forest
Brazil plans to double the number of troops along the borders of its vast Amazon rain forest area in the framework of the “Protecting Amazon” project, reported O Estado de Sao Paulo” this weekend.
IMF considers UK Chancellor Darling's forecast “optimistic”
Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer prediction on when the UK economy could start to recover may be “optimistic”, a director of the International Monetary Fund has said.
PM Brown calls for Argentine cooperation with Falklands
British PM Gordon Brown praised the new Falkland Islands constitution which enshrines the right to self determination and promised UK continued support for the development of the Islands hydrocarbons sector.
Yellow fever re-emerges in triple border area
Dead monkeys have been found in the jungle of northeast Argentina, next to Brazil and Paraguay, probably caused by yellow fever, according to local sanitary authorities. The discovery follows the confirmed yellow fever deaths of two jungle workers in the neighbouring province of Misiones.
Sir Alan Walters: “radical, fearless, the finest of friends”
Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's influential economics adviser, Sir Alan Walters, has died aged 82. Sir Alan's return as an adviser led in 1989 to the resignation of Chancellor Nigel Lawson, with whom he had clashed over the exchange rate mechanism (ERM).
Cuba's Raul Castro scheduled to visit Uruguay this year
Cuban president Raul Castro will be visiting Uruguay this year, according to reports in the Uruguayan government oriented press. Castro was extended an invitation last June when Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez was in the island and later confirmed in an official letter.
Socialist candidate abandons Chilean presidential race
The Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza announced Monday his withdrawal from the Chilean presidential elections scheduled for next December.
