Mercosur

• Wednesday, May 17th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  White House Says Ecuador Trade Talks Stall

  The Bush administration said Tuesday it had broken off negotiations on a free trade agreement with Ecuador following the South American government's decision to annul an operating contract with Occidental Petroleum Corp.

• Wednesday, May 17th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Britain's farmers rack up debt

  Britain's farmers are used to receiving bad news and so it was a familiar feeling when the Bank of England announced last week that farming debt has reached a new record high of just over 9 billion pounds.

• Wednesday, May 17th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Magallanes Region expanded 7.5% in first quarter

  Chile's Regional Economic Activity Index (Inacer) carried out by the National Statistics Institute (INE) shows the country's central and southern regions performed best in this year's first quarter. The INE excludes the Santiago Metropolitan Region in its assessments.

• Wednesday, May 17th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Peruvian presidential candidates debate next Sunday

  The two Peruvian presidential candidates have agreed to an hour long television debate next Sunday.

• Wednesday, May 17th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Sao Paulo back to normal; residents blame Judiciary

  After four days of organized gang attacks and a ferocious police backlash with a primary death toll of 115, including 49 police officers, the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo seemed on Wednesday to be returning to normal.

• Wednesday, May 17th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazilian farmers take to the streets to protest

  Thousands of small farmers took to the streets in several Brazilian cities to protest President Lula da Silva's administration tight credit policy and to demand better living conditions for the country's millions of peasant families

• Wednesday, May 17th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  US consumer prices rising at an annualized 5.1%

  United States consumer prices index rose 0.6% in April, the highest in three months and core inflation which does not include energy or food costs 0.3%, according to the latest release from the US Labour Department.

• Wednesday, May 17th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  One out of three Chileans fearful of leaving homes

  One out of three Chileans prefer not to leave their houses fearing the actions of criminals, according to the latest survey from the Santiago Freedom and Development Institute released this week.

• Tuesday, May 16th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Center-right boycotts Bolivian's speech to EU parliament

  President Evo Morales of Bolivia told the European Parliament in Strasbourg Monday that nationalization of the country's natural resources was not a matter of expropriation or expulsion.

• Tuesday, May 16th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  U.S. bans arms sales to Venezuela

  The United States is imposing a ban on arms sales to Venezuela because President Hugo Chavez's leftist government is not supporting counterterrorism efforts, State Department officials said Monday.