MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Penguin News Update.

Headlines:
Commandos lead the way; Standard Wool's Punta plant destroyed by fire; Argentine president reiterates sovereignty claims;
News in brief:

Patrol cuts ?on hold'; ?Aggressive' jiggers; Champion Maurice ? again.

Commandos lead the way

THREE teams of Royal Marines from 45 Commando travelled 8,000 miles from the United Kingdom to participate in the Commando Challenge, an exercise run by the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF) to commemorate the yomp carried out by British Forces in 1982. The teams' long journey was worthwhile - they secured the top three places in the competition, which took place late last week, with a team from the FIDF securing fourth place. Full story - centre pagesPicture: The winning team, led by Corporal Lee Howe, looks strong at the end of day two of the Commando Challenge.

Standard Wool's Punta plant destroyed by fire.

AT A time when Falklands farmers are beginning to gain confidence in sending their wool to Chile for processing, the loss of British-owned Standard Wool's Punta Arenas plant to fire early this week has come as a blow. The plant, which processes around 60% of the Magallanes Region's wool - and a growing amount of Falklands wool - will be out of the carding and combing business for the next 12 to 18 months following a devastating blaze that razed all the plant's equipment, several warehouses and over a thousand bales of greasy wool. Estimated losses are as high as six million US dollars as the scouring, carding, combing and baling section, with machinery less than a year old, was completely destroyed. "To this we have to add the buildings costs and the thousand bales stored in the warehouses," said Standard Wool president, David Bell, who nevertheless indicated that in spite of the overall disaster, "...fortunately last week we had shipped all of our processed production to Europe, Iran and Japan." Yesterday Mr Bell confirmed, "We will definitely be rebuilding here in Chile, as soon as the insurance company gives us the go ahead." In January 90 tons of Falklands wool was sent to Chile and another shipment is currently on its way. Mr Bell assured Falklands farmers, "We will be able to carry on bringing wool here and then exercising our rights under insurance paralysation cover to comb the wool elsewhere." A total of 85 people work in the plant which had a daily processing production of 14,000 kilos of wool, operating round the clock almost the whole year. According to the Punta Arenas press, the fire broke out in a small storage warehouse during the Sunday night shift when only 16 people were working in the scouring and carding section, rapidly spreading to the whole processing plant. (MP/PN)

Argentine president reiterates sovereignty claims.

THE Argentine president, Nestor Kirchner, has reiterated his administration's strong commitment to "recovering the full sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands", calling on the United Kingdom to resume negotiations leading to a peaceful solution of the dispute. According to the South American press, during his March 1 address to the Argentine General Assembly, President Kirchner insisted on reaching, "...with the support of the international community, a peaceful, fair and long lasting solution to the South Atlantic dispute, taking into account the constitutional provision of respecting the way of life of the Islands inhabitants." "This is a permanent state policy and responds to a collective desire of the people of our motherland," said Mr Kirchner. Responding to Mr Kirchner's words Councillor Jan Cheek yesterday said that the statement, like many previous ones, "...ignores our right to self determination. "There is nothing new in his address to indicate any realism in the Argentine approach to the problem.(MP/PN)

News in brief:

Patrol cuts ?on hold'.

A PLAN to cut 24-hour mobile Police patrols from March 1 has been put on hold. Councillor Jan Cheek this week confirmed the change in patrolling has been put on hold, "...pending further discussion of the policy at Standing Finance Committee and Executive Council." The Chief of Police, Superintendent Dave Morris, yesterday said, "There is no other way to make the target savings that have been imposed other than by losing manpower (83% of my budget is establishment costs). "This loss in manpower would result in the loss of 24 hour patrol cover and immediate response to 999 calls at certain times; there would be a response officer on-call but this would increase the response time considerably." He added that he hopes Executive Council will see the need for keeping the 24 hour patrol cover.

?Aggressive' jiggers.

A FALKLANDS-flagged trawler was involved in an "aggressive" incident on the high seas last week. Stuart Wallace, director of Fortuna Ltd, the owners of the trawler John Cheekyesterday said a "mishap with a sea anchor of a jigger" prompted "aggressive behaviour" from a number of jiggers in the area. In an act of what he described as "irresponsible behaviour", Mr Wallace said the jiggers moved very close to the John Cheek- "one actually touched the trawler." He said no one was hurt in the incident however, "it was dangerous behaviour" and the company is considering lodging a complaint.

Champion Maurice ? again.

MAURICE DAVIS has once again been named Champion Jockey at the Darwin Harbour Sports Association Meeting. Sports Week was hosted this year by North Arm on East Falkland and Fox Bay on West Falkland. Penguin Newswill feature coverage from both events - including a round up of the East race meeting by commentator Patrick Watts - next week.