Mercosur

• Tuesday, June 20th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  New York the politest city; London half courteous

  Brazil's Sao Paulo the second most populated city in Latinamerica, figures as the most polite megapolis in the region according to a good manners survey which rated New York in first place.

• Tuesday, June 20th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Optimism returns for Mercosur presidential summit

  What was forecasted to be a diplomatic flop only a month ago has turned dramatically in the last week and now promises to be a huge success: next month's Mercosur presidential summit in Cordoba, Argentina.

• Monday, June 19th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Uruguay: Botnia speeds up work

  The Finnish firm Botnia is planning to hire some 2,000 new workers in the coming weeks, as it speeds the construction of a mammoth paper pulp plant in the Uruguayan town of Fray Bentos, a news report in Montevideo said yesterday.

• Sunday, June 18th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Peruvian elected president invited to Chile this week

  Peruvian elected president Alan Garcia will be visiting Chile next Thursday specially invited by his counterpart Michelle Bachelet.

• Sunday, June 18th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentine government taking back airports

  The Argentine government has given a first long stride to recover control over the country's 32 main airports which for the last eight years have been under private administration, Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, AA2000, belonging to businessman Eduardo Eurnekian.

• Sunday, June 18th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  President Bachelet first 100 days in office

  Chilean president Michelle Bachelet celebrates Sunday her first 100 days in office and can feel satisfied since most of the 36 measures she promised for this period have been accomplished, according to the Chilean press.

• Sunday, June 18th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Venezuela to take over “inactive” mines

  Venezuela plans to take over all inactive mining areas to form new joint ventures with a state majority stake and state-backed small mining groups foreseen under a mine law reform, announced Heavy Industries and Mining Minister Víctor Alvarez.

• Sunday, June 18th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Anti-whaling alliance winning this year's conference

  Japan's attempt to revive commercial whaling looks dead for another year after the country lost a third crucial vote at an international meeting. Conservationists and anti-whaling nations had feared the pro-whaling camp led by Japan, Norway and Iceland might have got over the line at this year's International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Caribbean island of St Kitts.

• Sunday, June 18th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Bolivia's ambitious plan to reduce poverty

  Bolivia announced a massive plan involving 12 billion US dollars to reduce poverty and creating jobs.

• Sunday, June 18th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Venezuela and pulp mills conflict, “no risk for Mercosur”

  Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim emphasized Sunday that Venezuela's membership and the current pulp mills dispute between Argentina and Uruguay pose no threat or risk to Mercosur.