Mercosur

• Thursday, March 23rd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Caribbean cruise vessel fire kills one and injures 11

  A fire apparently started by a cigarette spread smoke through a cruise ship in the Caribbean Thursday, killing an American, injuring 11 other people and damaging about 150 cabins, officials said.

• Thursday, March 23rd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  A friendly Socialist Bachelet hand for Vazquez

  “A good Socialist always helps another Socialist”, that seems to have been the driving force behind the brief visit to Uruguay of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet who managed to put in scarce four hours in Montevideo after having concluded two intense days in Buenos Aires.

• Wednesday, March 22nd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina, Chile to forge strategic alliance

  Bachelet, who took office on March 11, opened the first state visit of her presidency calling on Kirchner to discuss growing trade and political ties ? and the sensitive issue of future Argentine supplies of natural gas to Chile.

• Wednesday, March 22nd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Breaking News

  Headlines:
  First South Georgia's visitors guide; Brazilian team surveyed humpback whales in SG; Uruguay grew 6.6% in 2005; Meat per capita consumption in Chile: 75.5 kilos.

• Wednesday, March 22nd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  A third of Argentina's population is poor

  Almost 34% of Argentina's urban population was described as poor at the end of 2005, with a 6.4 points drop on a year to year basis, according to the latest numbers from the official Census and Statistics Office.

• Wednesday, March 22nd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Ecuadorian Army clears roadblocks but protests continue

  Ecuadorian security forces began removing roadblocks placed by indigenous groups protesting against talks for a free trade agreement with United States.

• Tuesday, March 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Ecuador: rioting against free trade agreement with US escalates

  Ecuador's main Indian federation claimed Monday that 30 peasants had been hospitalized and over 100 arrested during violent protests against a free trade pact with the United States scheduled to be signed in the coming days

• Tuesday, March 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  UN begins review of migratory fish stocks agreement

  Faced with continuing illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing that is severely depleting the world's oceans of their fish stocks, countries represented at a United Nations meeting on the issue called on Monday for new measures to strengthen a global treaty to manage fishing on the high seas.

• Tuesday, March 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Bob Kennedy Jr. promises to fight dam project in Chile

  Environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr. pledged to provide all necessary financial and logistical support to prevent the construction of proposed dam projects in southern Chile.

• Tuesday, March 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  US raises debt ceiling to record breaking 9 trillion

  President George W Bush signed a bill raising the United States national debt ceiling to nearly 9 trillion US dollars. The bill means the government can borrow a further 781 billion and stops what would have been a first ever default of Treasury notes.