
Early Friday the stranded Royal Navy's Ice Patrol HMS Endurance with its 113 crew and a translator arrived in Punta Arenas pulled by two Chilean tugs. She has already been docked at the Asmar ship yard where Chilean and British engineers will immediately begin with emergency repairs.
The Royal Navy Ice Patrol Ship HMS Endurance stranded at the western access of the Magellan Strait is being towed by a Chilean tug to Punta Arenas where she's scheduled to arrive next Friday, according to the latest reports from the Chilean Navy Third Naval Zone.

Brazil's Lower House approved the incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur, but a further and tougher hurdle lies ahead: the Senate where several members have anticipated their disagreement, according to sources quoted by the Brasilia press.
Cuba on Tuesday was formally accepted as a member of the Rio Group of Latin American nations, handing the communist island a symbolic victory over US efforts to bar it from regional organizations.

Poor start for the Mercosur summit in Salvador Bahía, Brazil. Mercosur member countries have been unable to reach an agreement in one of the main points of the agenda and which has been a stumbling issue for years: elimination of the double tariff on imports from third countries and which are then re-exported inside the block.

The discovery and exploitation of new oil and gas wells in the extreme south of Chile has generated a boom for the Magallanes Region which is creating a significant demand for technicians and specialized labour.

Mercosur presidential summit next week in Brazil has on the table an agenda of several highly sensitive issues that could deepen the rift between senior members Argentina and Brazil and junior members Paraguay and Uruguay, according to Uruguayan parliamentary sources.

THE anniversary of the Battle of the Falkland Islands, the second major naval engagement of the First World War, was this year also the date chosen for the signing of the new Falklands Constitution.

Argentine and Chilean naval forces will hold this week the Viekaren IX joint exercises in the Beagle channel zone in Tierra del Fuego, extreme south of South America, according to a release from the Chilean navy.

The Admiral Chabanenko had earlier completed manoeuvres with Venezuela's navy, coinciding with a Latin American tour by the Russian president.