Mercosur

• Thursday, July 6th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Chavez displays new Russian planes and arms

  Venezuela' Hugo Chavez celebrated Wednesday the country's Independence Day with a display of sophisticated aircrafts and arms purchased from Russia following an arms and spares freeze imposed by United States several months ago.

• Thursday, July 6th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Vazquez hints at mill dialogue

  Uruguayan President Tabaré Vazquez yesterday said that a warm embrace with his Argentine counterpart Néstor Kirchner in Caracas on Tuesday night was “a sign toward dialogue” between the two countries which are engaged in a bitter spat over the construction of two pulp mills in Uruguay.

• Thursday, July 6th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Kirchner: “Venezuela is a full democracy”

  Mercosur should design a common strategy of security, sovereignty and defence, said Chavez.

• Thursday, July 6th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina's inflation in June 0.5% and 4.9% in six months

  Argentina's Consumer price index in June reached 0.5%, with an accumulated six months 4.9% and below the Kirchner administration annualized 10% target, according to the latest release from the Statistics and Census Office.

• Thursday, July 6th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Childhood obesity controversy in Chile

  Chile is among the top five nations leading the world in childhood obesity, according to new statistics released by Junaeb, a Chilean organization focused on children and education.

• Thursday, July 6th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Inflation fears, but Euro area key rates unchanged

  The European Union Central Bank Governing Council left key interest rates unchanged at 2.75% following Thursday's meeting reported the institution's president Jean Claude Trichet.

• Thursday, July 6th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Lopez Obrador challenges Calderon victory demands recount

  Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rejected Thursday the official vote tally as “flawed” and called his supporters to fill Mexico City's central square to press his demand for a ballot-by-ballot recount.

• Thursday, July 6th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Mercosur rejects “joint” Army suggestion as too premature

  Former Argentine vice-president Carlos “Chacho” Alvarez said Thursday that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez proposition of a joint Mercosur Army should be addressed when the “integration process is well advanced”.

• Wednesday, July 5th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina and Venezuela agree “strategic alliance”

  Argentina and Venezuela announced in Caracas a “strategic alliance” to beef up the “Caracas-Buenos Aires axis”.

• Wednesday, July 5th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazil's Bolivian gas bill could double

  Bolivia will be asking Brazil to pay eight US dollars for the natural gas it pumps at a rate of 27 million cubic metres per day, according to a report Tuesday from the Bolivian Information Agency.