Mercosur

• Friday, February 10th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  UK interest rates on hold at 4.5%

  The Bank of England decided Thursday to leave interest rates on hold at 4.5% in spite of some expectations of a possible cut.
  The last time UK rates were cut was in August 2005 when they fell a quarter of a point.

• Friday, February 10th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Chilean record exports

  Chilean exports totalled 3.649 billion US dollars in January, up 22% from the same month in 2005, according to the monthly bulletin from Chile's Central Bank.

• Friday, February 10th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  FAM “sanitary emergency” in Argentina

  A “sanitary emergency” was declared Friday in Argentina following a foot and mouth disease outbreak in the northeastern province of Corrientes earlier in the week.

• Thursday, February 9th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  New political scenario looming in Costa Rica

  Costa Rica's new president will only be known at the end of February because the hand counting of ballots is estimated to take another three weeks, announced Wednesday the president of the country's Electoral Tribunal, TSE.

• Thursday, February 9th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Former associate of ousted president leads Haiti election

  Former President Rene Preval and once a close political associate of ousted Jean-Bertrand Aristede, was leading in Wednesday's vote count of Haiti's Tuesday elections accumulating a big lead over his rivals.

• Thursday, February 9th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Venezuela boosts oil exports to China

  Venezuela's Energy minister announced Wednesday the doubling of oil exports to China and tried to mend fences with Spanish-Argentine oil and gas corporation Repsol-YPF which he previously described as “colonialist”.

• Thursday, February 9th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Repsol-YPF “hunted” or “on the hunt”

  Spanish Argentine Repsol-YPF oil and gas consortium is being “hunted” or is “on the hunt” to recover lost positions speculates the Spanish press this week.

• Thursday, February 9th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  Chavez blasts Britain's Blair for comments on Venezuela

  President Hugo Chavez blasted Britain's Tony Blair on Wednesday for saying that Venezuela “should comply with the rules of the international community.”

• Thursday, February 9th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  US fighters 'yards from BA plane'

  Two American Air Force fighter planes came close to a British Airways regional passenger aircraft amid “general confusion”, an official accident report has said.

• Thursday, February 9th 2006 - 20:00 UTC

  First case of H5N1 bird flu in Africa

  A deadly strain of bird flu has been discovered on a poultry farm in northern Nigeria, health officials said Wednesday, marking the virus's first known appearance in Africa.