Mercosur

• Thursday, September 29th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Visionary Jules Verne ?hosts' UN tourism day

  From Madeira to Vladivostok and Latvia to Argentina, festivals, exhibitions and concerts marked United Nations World Tourism Day September 27 with a tip of the hat to the great French visionary and writer Jules Verne and the whimsical prospect of space as humankind's final tourist frontier.

• Thursday, September 29th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Venezuelan “social interest” targets oil operational contracts

  With Venezuelan president fully involved in his campaign of taking over “idle” land and industrial compounds claiming “social interest”, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez anticipated that some private exploitation areas in the oil industry will be reviewed.

• Thursday, September 29th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Plot to delay elections denounced by Bolivian candidate

  Bolivian favourite presidential hopeful Evo Morales claimed the existence of a plan orchestrated by his country's “oligarchy” to delay the coming December elections, but this will “only delay their own defeat”.

• Thursday, September 29th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Relief for the embattled Lula administration

  A close ally of Brazilian president Lula da Silva, Communist Aldo Rebelo was elected late Wednesday head of the Lower House, a much needed victory for the embattled administration.

• Thursday, September 29th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Cuba “big brother” network celebrates 45th anniversary

  The Cuban communist regime celebrated this week the 45th anniversary of the neighbourly “big brother” organization which keeps a close eye on almost every Cuban citizen and foreign visitors, virtually covering the whole island.

• Thursday, September 29th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Desperate efforts to rescue men trapped in Antarctic crevasse

  The Argentine team involved in the search of two missing members disappeared in an Antarctic crevasse since September 17, joined Thursday the rescue efforts of the Chilean Army that has three men trapped in a snow vehicle which plunged forty metres into a crack in the ice cap.

• Tuesday, September 27th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Mercosur becoming a world leading cellulose producer

  Mercosur is forecasted to become a world cellulose production pole with investments in three plants and forests, from one company only equivalent to 3,75 billion US dollars.

• Tuesday, September 27th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Chavez moves ahead with his “agrarian reform”

  The Venezuelan government expropriated this week a corn silos plant belonging to the country's main agro-business corporation as part of its campaign to take over “idle” companies and farmland and hand them to workers and peasants.

• Tuesday, September 27th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazilian Workers Party support rapidly eroding

  The extent of the disillusion with the corruption scandal involving the Brazilian administration of President Lula da Silva is taking its toll in the ruling Workers Party, four Deputies resigned and 400 grass root leaders have left.

• Tuesday, September 27th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Latinamerica faces 14 elections in next 18 months

  Risk assessment agencies anticipate that political rattling in the coming eighteen months when elections will be held in fourteen Latinamerican countries could delay the implementation of structural reforms in some of them.