Mercosur

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

  Possible new outbreak of FAM in north Argentina

  Argentine sanitary officials are checking into the possibility of a new outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the area where two weeks ago several thousands of cattle and hoofed animals were sacrificed.

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

  Mandelson calls for a new EU/Mercosur round of talks

  The European Union Trade Commissar Peter Mandelson said he was disappointed with the EU and Mercosur's incapacity to reach a free trade agreement but nevertheless extended an invitation for another round of talks.

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

  Argentina formally notifies Falklands' vessel arrest

  Argentina officially notified the British Embassy in Buenos Aires on Thursday of the capture, last Monday, of the Falklands' flagged vessel “John Cheek” allegedly fishing in Argentina's EEZ

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

  EU fails to agree on bird flu jabs

  European Union governments failed to approve plans to vaccinate poultry against flu, even as the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu was confirmed in a seventh EU country.

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

  “John Cheek” arrest: “lawless action, almost abduction”

  The Spanish captain of the Falkland Islands flagged “John Cheek” retained in Comodoro Rivadavia insists they never fished in Argentine waters and Spanish fishing industry sources consider the whole incident a “lawless action, almost abduction”.

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

  Guerrilla leader killed in Peru

  Peruvian police killed the military leader of the Shining Path guerrilla group in an operation over the weekend, reported officials. Victor Aponte Sinalagua, or “Comrade Clay,” was killed in the hamlet of Alto Pacae, in Tingo Maria, some 558 kilometers northeast of Lima.

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

  Twelve bare-boat chartered vessels cleared to fish squid

  The Federal Fishery Council (CFP) authorised the submission of applications to register in the Special Register of Fishing Projects for the Argentine Shortfin Squid (Illex argentinus) Exploitation through the Location of Bare-boat Chartered Foreign Vessels in the National Jurisdictional Waters”.

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

  New cases of foot-and-mouth in Brazil

  Six new cases of foot-and-mouth disease were confirmed in the southern state of Parana, Brazil's Agriculture Ministry said yesterday.

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

  First steps to ban bottom trawling in South Pacific

  One-third of New Zealand's offshore waters are going to be declared off-limits to bottom-trawlers. The announcement was made in Wellington at the end of a fisheries conference attended by delegates from 20 nations.

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

  South Georgia's elephant seals contribution to science

  Equipped with computerised tags stuck to their heads, elephant seals in South Georgia have been collecting remarkable new information on conditions in the Southern Ocean.