MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Stories for April 17th 2008
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Thursday, April 17th 2008 - 21:00 UTC
Paraguayan election, another energy challenge for Brazil
Energy and energy security has snowballed as an issue in the last leg of the Paraguayan presidential election of next Sunday, April 20. The two heavy weight neighbors are highly dependent on Paraguayan energy resources and all Paraguayan leading candidates have promised a review of the contracts “which are most unfair for our country”.
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Thursday, April 17th 2008 - 21:00 UTC
China becomes world's second exporter ahead of US
China overtook United States as the world's second exporter of goods in 2007, while Germany remains top of the ranking according to the latest data from the World Trade Organization, WYO.
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Thursday, April 17th 2008 - 21:00 UTC
Merrill Lynch posts losses of 6.5 billion in first quarter
Merrill Lynch posted its third straight quarterly loss, its first of 2008, after more write-downs linked to the embattled credit markets. The world's largest brokerage lost 6.5 billion US dollars in write downs on subprime mortgages and other risky assets.
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Thursday, April 17th 2008 - 21:00 UTC
Lula da Silva defends bio-fuels and attacks farm subsidies
Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made an impassioned defense of bio-fuels rejecting that they are responsible for the recent rise in global food prices during the opening ceremony of a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, conference in Brasilia.
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Thursday, April 17th 2008 - 21:00 UTC
Chilean Central Bank purchases help to prop US dollar
The dollar closed in Santiago money markets at 456.6 Chilean pesos on Thursday, up from 434.1 Chilean pesos a week ago. This rapid gain comes in the wake of Chile's Central Bank's announcement last week that it would buy 8 billion US dollars over the course of the year.
