
President Evo Morales said Bolivia would respond in the coming hours to a proposal from Brazil's state-run oil company, Petrobras, regarding compensation for its two refineries in Bolivia recently nationalized.

Brazil's TAM Linhas Aéreas and Lan Chile, both airlines with a clear dominating position in their domestic markets have agreed to formalize a business alliance. The agreement to be implemented in the next three months aims to develop partnerships in routes operated in South America, broadening passengers' options to fly to several destinations.

The World Trade Organization has ruled that Chile should not apply tariff barriers to the price of Argentine wheat and flour. The ruling was a response Chile's final appeal to the WTO in the lengthy trade dispute with Argentina that began in 2000.

When Australian pop diva Kylie Minogue arrived at Santiago de Chile's international airport last Wednesday, she was met by film producer Alexander Dahm, who lives in Mexico with his wife and son.
Copper prices rose to a ten-month record high Friday of US$ 3.73 per pound at the London Metal Exchange. This helped push the value of the U.S. dollar in Chilean money markets to new lows and led speculation about the effects this might have in the country's economy.
Nationalisation of Venezuela's banks could seriously destabilise Venezuela's economy but it is unlikely that President Hugo Chávez would carry out his threat soon, if at all, analysts said on Friday.

Until next Friday naval units from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Spain and United States will be participating in the Multinational Exercise Unitas XLVIII in the South Atlantic.

Venezuela threatened to expel Conoco-Phillips, the US oil company, if it does not abide by the nationalization of stakes held by foreign investors in the country's Orinoco heavy oil operations.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened on Thursday to nationalize the country's banks and largest steel producer, if they don't join the country's economic expansion plans.

Canada's Methanex, the world's leading producer of methanol and which has a gigantic plant in Punta Arenas expects to break its Argentina natural gas dependency sometime in the next three years, and concentrate on Chilean supplies, said Bruce Aitken, the company's CEO.