The European Union hopes to resume stalled talks that aim at setting up a free trade agreement with South American trade bloc Mercosur by May at the latest, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said yesterday.
Uruguay's Carlos Pérez del Castillo urged European Union legislators yesterday to back him for the job of director general of the World Trade Organization, saying the post should go to a person from a developing country.
Spanish travel group Marsans is seeking partners to invest in its Aerolíneas Argentinas unit, and would even consider selling it entirely if the price were right, a source close to the company said yesterday.
The British territory of St Helena, in the south Atlantic, has been given approval to build its first airport. The Department for International Development (Dfid) said the remote island - accessible only by ship - should have air access by 2010.
Saudi Arabia Oil Minister Ali el Noeimi said that international crude is calling on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, to increase its current supply of 27 million barrels per day by another half million barrels.
Sales of Shell in Argentina dropped 70% since last Thursday when President Nestor Kirchner called on consumers to boycott the oil company for having increased the price of fuels 4,2%, said Carlos Calabró, president of the Argentine Federation of Fuel Businessmen.
A nephew of former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet is offering on sale one of his kidneys in a last ditch effort to survive from bankruptcy, reports this week the Santiago press
An Australian fisheries patrol boat was powerless to stop six ships from suspected illegal fishing for the threatened Patagonian toothfish, reports the Federal Government in Canberra.
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to announce this week a major cabinet reshuffle giving greater participation to conservative parties with the purpose of paving the way for his re-election in 2006.
Kidnapping, robberies and killings have placed Buenos Aires in position 115 of a world safety ranking which includes 215 cities in all continents. The safest is Luxembourg and at the other extreme figures Baghdad.