MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cruise operators optimistic

In spite of the massive canceling of reservations for New Year's cruises in the Northern hemisphere because of terrorist attacks in United States, Brazilian and Argentine tourist operators believe a significant percentage of that trade can be re routed to the Southern hemisphere. "Europeans seem to be back in the market, and some Americans also, but all are requesting a different itinerary", said Roberto Fusaro Costa Cruise General Manger for Latinamerica. Mr. Fusaro believes many Europeans and Americas will prefer Latinamerica to the usual Northern hemisphere cruises. Costa Cruise will have three vessels with a 4,000 passengers capacity operating from Argentina this summer, and "overall fares this season are 3% lower", indicated Mr. Fusaro. Regarding the world cruise market, Mr. Fusaro said there are approximately 11 million travelers, seven of which Americans, including 150,000 from Latinamerica. Costa Cruise annual sales total 500 million US dollars, with 20 million in Argentina. "In Argentina and Brazil, the market works really mini cruises, three, four nights and relatively close destinations, Punta del Este, Rio do Janeiro, Salvador, northeast Brazil with an air combination, but we're talking of average fares of 400 US dollars", said Mr. Fusaro. "But we also have longer cruises, eleven days, to Tierra del Fuego with stops in Puerto Madryn, Punta Arenas, Bahía Garibaldi, Ushuaia and even Malvinas", added Costa Cruises General Manager. Costa Cruises, originally belonging the Italian Costa family from Genoa, now is part of Carnival Corporation that together with Royal Caribbean are the world's top cruise operators. At the end of last week, and with the depressive mood in Wall Street, Carnival Corporation shares had dropped 36,7% and Royal Caribbean's 42,3%, since September 10th, the day of the terrorist attacks.

Mossad warned Americans

Israel's intelligence service Mossad, warned the FBI and CIA last August that at least 200 terrorists had infiltrated the United States and were planning a full scale attack to expose "US vulnerability". The news was published by Los Angeles Times, adding that there are growing signs of a possible Iraq intelligence connection with