Mercosur

• Friday, April 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazil must resist “fiscal easing” pressures

  Brazil will have to resist pressures for fiscal easing to sustain high primary surpluses and to raise medium term growth through reform efforts including improving the quality of fiscal policy and the business climate, according to IMF's World Economic Outlook released this week.

• Friday, April 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  New FAM outbreak in south Brazil

  Brazilian authorities confirmed Thursday a new outbreak of the highly contagious foot and mouth disease in the state of Matto Grosso do Sul, close to the Paraguayan border.

• Friday, April 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  IMF suggests reforms in Argentina's utility sector

  Argentina needs to introduce reforms in the utility sector including the liberalisation of prices and raise investment in infrastructure to avoid the emergence of supply bottlenecks suggested the IMF in its annual World Economic Outlook.

• Friday, April 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Chilean tourism in first quarter up 12.5%

  The number of foreign tourists visiting Chile during the first quarter of this year jumped 12.5% over the same period a year ago revealed the country's Nacional Tourism Office, Sernatur.

• Friday, April 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Supplement of Iodized salt could lower number of victims

  Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the United Nations Children's Fund said that iodized salt could have significantly lowered the numbers of exposed children who developed thyroid cancer and called for the supplement to be widely used throughout the affected region.

• Friday, April 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Britain's ?secret infantry'

  Britain announced the creation of a new Special Forces unit on yesterday in a rare public statement about its legendary cadre of top-secret troops.

• Friday, April 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  The Queen is celebrating her 80th birthday.

  She will mark the milestone with a traditional walkabout in the morning and a black-tie dinner in the evening with the rest of the Royal Family.

• Friday, April 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  US and Venezuela reach civil aviation agreement

  United States authorities on Friday raised Venezuela's civil aviation security classification to Category 1, a Federal Aviation Administration official announced.

• Thursday, April 20th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Uruguayan economy robust but needs more “fiscal discipline”

  The International Monetary Fund called on Uruguay for more “fiscal discipline” and reforms to the pensions and finance systems in the latest edition of its World Economic Outlook.

• Thursday, April 20th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazil celebrates Friday oil self sufficiency

  Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will announce Friday that the country has become self sufficient in oil with a daily production of 1.9 million barrels per day.