Mercosur

• Monday, November 7th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Acquitted “Viarsa 1”: Australia faces huge damage claims

  Australia faces a damages claim that could exceed ten million US dollars after five fishermen from the Uruguayan flagged longliner “Viarsa 1” were acquitted of charges over an alleged poaching of one million US dollars of Patagonian toothfish.

• Monday, November 7th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Peru's ex-president arrested in Chile

  Peru's ex-president Alberto Fujimori, wanted there on human rights abuse and corruption charges, has been arrested during a surprise visit to Chile, according to Peru's foreign minister and Chilean police.

• Sunday, November 6th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Let's talk again after the Hong Kong meeting

  The failure of the 34 hemispheric countries in reaching a compromise on a free trade area at the Mar del Plata summit was summarized in an annexe to the final declaration, more precisely in paragraph 19 with the two rival positions.

• Sunday, November 6th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Mexico to join Mercosur “first half of 2006”

  Mexico will begin the Mercosur incorporation process during the first half of 2006 announced Mexican president Vicente Fox during his stay in Mar del Plata, Argentina for the IV Americas Summit.

• Sunday, November 6th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentina satisfied with “Mercosur' consolidation”

  Argentina's cabinet chief Alberto Fernandez bluntly denied that the IV Americas Summit had turned into a “failure” for Argentina and expressed satisfaction because “Mercosur came out much consolidated” following the two days meeting of 34 leaders from the hemisphere including US President George Bush.

• Sunday, November 6th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Bush: “we must convince Lula of FTAA benefits”

  United States President George W. Bush currently visiting Brazil admitted Sunday he must work harder to convince President Lula da Silva of the benefits of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, (FTAA) the big stumbling block in Friday/Saturday's IV Americas Summit.

• Saturday, November 5th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Corruption probe encroaching on Lula's administration

  Brazilian opposition leaders announced that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be included in the months-long corruption probe, following revelations that money diverted from a government managed bank funded a network of illegal payments by the ruling Workers Party, PT.

• Saturday, November 5th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Uruguay steps up FAM controls in Brazilian border

  Uruguay stepped up border sanitary controls in anticipation of “unpleasant” surprises following at least fourteen outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in neighbouring Brazil.

• Saturday, November 5th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  A Swiss sketch on Falklanders' fears

  “Kelpers live physically and geographically in a continent but psychologically and mentally in another, in a mythical Great Britain which probably no longer corresponds with reality”, writes Swiss journalist Jean Bernard Vuilleme in his recently published short book “Notes on Malvinas”.

• Saturday, November 5th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Davidoff's South Georgia claim definitively closed

  An Argentine court closed an old chapter of the South Atlantic conflict when it rejected a claim against the United Kingdom from a businessman who was forcibly evicted from South Georgia in 1982 following the flying of an Argentine flag, an episode that is blamed for the precipitation of the armed confrontation, reports the Buenos Aires press.