Stories for August 6th 2003

Wednesday, August 6th 2003 - 21:00 UTC

Free of Maedi Visna, soon?

The Chilean Agriculture and Livestock Service, SAG, is confident that in a near future the province of Ultima Esperanza in the extreme south of Chile (Tierra del Fuego and Magallanes) will be declared free of Maedi visna, a disease that affects sheep reproduction and which frustrated several ovine development projects in the area.

Wednesday, August 6th 2003 - 21:00 UTC

Lavagna to meet Snow.

Argentine Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna will be meeting this week with United States Secretary of the Treasury John Snow in Washington to “assess financial relations between both countries”.

Wednesday, August 6th 2003 - 21:00 UTC

Strong seism in Argentine Antarctic base.

A “tsunami” or seismic wave caused by a 7,3 points Richter scale seism hit this week the Argentine Antarctic base of Orcadas (Orkneys) leaving broken window glass, fallen objects but fortunately no wounded or structural damages to the compound.

Wednesday, August 6th 2003 - 21:00 UTC

Record winter tourist season in Argentina

The Argentine Tourism Office reports an excellent winter season with record numbers compared to a year ago. With 7,350,000 tourists, a 15% increase over the 6,400,000 in 2002, “the season exceeded our most optimistic expectations”, reads an official report indicating that the South, followed by the Northern provinces proved the main attractions.

Wednesday, August 6th 2003 - 21:00 UTC

Brazil's pensions reform past the first hurdle

A massive protest was the first popular reaction to the approval by the Brazilian Lower House of the controversial public pensions' system reforms. An estimated 35,000 protesters marched along Brasilia's streets destroying public property and finally tried to break into Congress where riot police pushed them back.