Mercosur

• Friday, May 5th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Uruguay exposes Mercosur plights in the White House

  Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez said he was most satisfied with the meeting Thursday in the White House with President George Bush, where it was agreed to expand trade and commercial links between the two countries.

• Friday, May 5th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Blair to shake up cabinet after poll rout

  Tony Blair will carry out a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle on Friday as he tries to fend off demands from Labour MPs that he must quit after the party's poor performance in England's local government elections.

• Friday, May 5th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina goes to The Hague

  Argentina yesterday announced that it had lodged a claim against Uruguay before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, protesting at the construction of two paper pulp mills it fears will pollute their river border.

• Friday, May 5th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Blair's sweeping reshuffle keeps Brown waiting

  Prime Minister Tony Blair fired his Home secretary and removed the Foreign secretary in a wide-ranging Cabinet reshuffle, an immediate reaction to Labor's pounding in Thursday's local elections but which also gives an indication as to the future leadership of the party.

• Thursday, May 4th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Vazquez closer to the US meets President Bush

  Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez gave further signals Wednesday in Washington of his willingness to have closer links with United States.

• Thursday, May 4th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Chile President M. Bachelet travel to Easter Islands.

  President Michelle Bachelet travels to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) today, Thursday, to inaugurate “Month of the Sea” celebrations on Chile's Pacific Ocean territory. Traveling with the President are Defense Minister Vivianne Blanlot and Interior Minister Andrés Zaldívar.

• Thursday, May 4th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Spanish vessel owner facing 35-year jail term in US

  A Spanish fishing vessel owner charged with illegally importing over 26,000 kilos of Chilean sea-bass or Patagonian toothfish pleaded not guilty Thursday in his first appearance in a United States Florida court.

• Thursday, May 4th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Former crew members revisit Penelope

  A group of former Argentine Navy crew members of the auxiliary ketch Penelope during the 1982 South Atlantic war were able to visit their old ship as it stopped over in Buenos Aires en route from the Falkland Islands to Germany after 70 years in South Atlantic waters.

• Wednesday, May 3rd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Cuba: “world's second largest prison for journalists”

  Cuba remained in 2005 the Latin American country where reporters are most exposed to government violence and holds the deplorable honour of being “the world's second-largest prison for journalists” behind China according to Reporters Without Borders, RSF, 167 country annual index.

• Wednesday, May 3rd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Bolivia's energy move: urgent regional summit

  An urgent regional presidential summit has been called for next Thursday to be held in northern Argentina following Bolivia's Monday decision to take over the country's energy industry.