MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

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Headlines:
Airport heist in Chile nets gang $1.6 million; Fast ferry collides with whale: 49 injured; OAS Secretary General invited to Bolivia.

Airport heist in Chile nets gang $1.6 million

Seven armed robbers stole 1.6 million US dollars from a security company's warehouse in the Santiago airport, Chilean police said. The robbers surprised three guards who were weighing sacks of cash Saturday in the cargo section of Arturo Merino Benitez Airport that were to be distributed by armoured car to bank branches across Chile. The robbers used their weapons to threaten the guards and stole eight sacks full of cash. Police special operations unit chief Trevor Oyarzun said all indications are that the robbers were familiar with procedures in the cargo area of the airport. "The criminals probably had inside information and carried out the crime with very good preparations," Oyarzun said. The pick-up truck used by the robbers to get away from the airport was later found abandoned by police in a neighbourhood in north Santiago.

Fast ferry collides with whale: 49 injured

Forty-nine people were injured on Sunday, 13 seriously, when a high-speed ferry collided with a large marine animal off the coast of the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, Kyodo news reported. The Toppy 4 ferry with 109 passengers onboard was heading from Yaku Island to the city of Kagoshima when the accident occurred off Cape Sata, the southernmost point of the four main Japanese islands, Kyodo reported citing the Japan Coast Guard. One of the boats crew members was quoted as saying the ferry "collided with a whale-like marine animal". Seven seriously injured passengers were taken ashore by a Coast Guard vessel while the rest remained on board. The ferry was seriously damaged but was not in danger of sinking. Hydrofoil boats travel on foils or "wings" that raise the hull above the water reducing drag and allowing the vessel to travel at very high speeds. Similar collisions between ferries and animals, off the western coast of Japan, were reported earlier this year.

OAS Secretary General invited to Bolivia

The Organization of American States Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza will be visiting Bolivia later this month and will be received by President Evo Morales, which is a "very good signal" said Roberto Finot, Bolivia's General Consul in Santiago. The visit must be seen from "a totally positive angle" said Finot recalling that "Bolivia was the country that opposed and finally abstained from voting in favour of Mr. Insulza as OAS Secretary General". Mr. Insulza a former Chilean minister of Interior was opposed by Bolivia and Peru to lead OAS because both countries have pending border litigations with Chile. "The fact that Mr. Insulza is holding that post and has been officially invited by the government and president of Bolivia is an acknowledgement to the relevant job he has performed in the OAS by calling on all sides, (Chile and Bolivia) to sit and discuss the sea outlet" for Bolivia he insisted. "There's not much else OAS can do. It's not entitled to negotiate nothing at all but can be a propelling factor and can even offer technical support assistance for the negotiations and the regional interest projects related to the sea access for Bolivia". Finot admitted that the fact Bolivia is landlocked is "essentially a bilateral issue, but has a trilateral component, regional and hemispheric because the solution of the matter effectively benefits Bolivia, Chile, the Southern Cone countries and those in the region". "The willingness to solve the issue has two sides: Bolivia and Chile. If both sides put the matter on the negotiations table, it could be solved. Nothing, absolutely nothing can be imposed on either side, it all depends on the two sides' negotiation, but his must have a hemispheric and regional dimension which is essentially relevant", concluded Mr. Finot.