Mercosur

• Monday, July 31st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Enap joins British Gas to build electricity plant

  Chile's government owned petroleum company ENAP teamed up with Chilean group Copec and British Gas for the building of an electricity generating plant with an estimated investment of 300 million US dollars.

• Monday, July 31st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Lavagna describes Kirchner's policies as “interventionist”

  Argentina's former Minister of Economy Roberto Lavagna took distance from the current “state oriented” and “market intervention” policies of President Nestor Kirchner's administration

• Monday, July 31st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina: Falklands census show Islanders are “implanted”

  Based on information from Falkland Islands censuses, the recently created Argentine Parliamentary Observatory argues that Great Britain is not entitled to claim the self determination principle in the Islands since the population was “implanted”.

• Sunday, July 30th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Playboy “rescue plan” for Varig staff

  A group of stunning Brazilian stewardesses from the former airline Varig are negotiating a contract with Playboy magazine for the publication of nude photographs.

• Saturday, July 29th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Massive redundancies in Varig

  Brazilian flag carrier Varig, which was recently sold to one of its former subsidiary, announced Friday that it will lay off 5,500 workers as part of a broad restructuring plan.

• Saturday, July 29th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Kirchner's public opinion standing strong: 75%

  Argentine president Nestor Kirchner support remained strong in June, above 75%, although four points below the May reading, according to the latest public opinion poll from consultants CEOP released in Buenos Aires.

• Saturday, July 29th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Why it's best to be a Dane or Swiss

  According to the first “World map of happiness” created at the University of Leicester, Danes and Swiss are top of the list of 177 countries and Zimbabwe and Burundi in the other extreme.

• Saturday, July 29th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Sir Nicholas re-elected chairman of UK/FI Group

  Sir Nicholas Winterton, MP for Macclesfield has been re-elected unanimously and unopposed as chairman of the United Kingdom-Falkland Islands All-Party Parliamentary Group.

• Saturday, July 29th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina/Chile “relations of trust” badly damaged

  Chilean president Michelle Bachelet in a letter sent to her counterpart Nestor Kirchner complained that Argentina's decision to sharply increase the price of natural gas it sells to Chile had badly damaged the “relations of trust” between the two countries.

• Saturday, July 29th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Uruguay repays IMF 900 million US dollars

  Uruguay announced Friday the advance repayment of 900 million US dollars to the International Monetary Fund, which represents an overall saving of 40 million US dollars in interests.