MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

South America News.

Gigantic iceberg

A gigantic iceberg double the area of Manhattan island is drifting in the Ross Sea after breaking off from the Matusevich glacier in the Antartic continent. Approaching New Zeland and identified as the C-17, the gigantic block of ice is one of the many in the south seas that is fuelling an ongoing debate regarding the evolution of Antartic temperature and world climatic conditions. While there's growing concern about the number of huge icebergs that have broken off in the last few years, --at least 47 are regularly monitored by satellite given their size and danger to shipping--, some experts believe they are an indication of the global greenhouse effect. However other scientists who have been following the phenomenon more closely describe it as indicative of regional conditions, with a possible increase of temperatures in certain Antarctic areas such as Ross Sea, facing New Zeland, with more extreme conditions in the rest of the continent. For these scientists only long term records and studies at world level, can confirm if the earth is undergoing a warming cycle. The largest iceberg so far, B-15-B, the size of the state of Rhode Island is currently 800 miles south of New Zeland and the A-22-C is the furthest north, 600 miles from Cape Town.

Armed Forces changing role

Mercosur Armed Forces are quietly but consistently undergoing a modernization process involving objectives, capability and strategy. According to Argentine political analyst Rosendo Fraga, Brazil with the largest forces in the area, and very concerned about the United States growing involvement in Colombia, has signed arms supply agreements with the European Union, basically France, and president Fernando Cardoso recently agreed a "long term strategic association" with Russia including the joint production of a modern fighter-bomber. Chile for the first time ever has named a woman, and Socialist, as Defence Minister, and one of her first decisions was the purchase of US built F-16 fighter bombers, a "strategic investment" involving 700 million US dollars. In the cooler, for the meantime, a 900 million US dollars project to jointly build German Meko frigates. The Army is