Mercosur

• Wednesday, September 14th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazilian concern with Paraguay's Mercosur commitment

  Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Celso Amorim expressed concern over the possibility Paraguay and United States sign a free trade agreement and called for transparency in the military cooperation agreement between both countries.

• Wednesday, September 14th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Pre-Katrina US trade gap drops slightly

  United States trade deficit last August dropped 2,6% with exports reaching a new record while imports of consumer goods and capital equipment slowed according to the latest release from the US Department of Commerce.

• Wednesday, September 14th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Venezuelan corporations protest rash of expropriations

  Venezuela's main business association called Tuesday on the National Assembly and the Supreme Court to “restore legal and constitutional order” which is being destroyed by the Executive's expropriation of supposedly “inactive” companies and idle farms.

• Wednesday, September 14th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentine-Chilean combined exercises in South Atlantic

  Argentine and Chilean naval forces participated last week in joint exercises in the South Atlantic with the purpose of increasing the two navies' capabilities and in a near future operating as a “Multinational Task Force”.

• Wednesday, September 14th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Chile's presidential campaign takes off

  Chile's December presidential campaign officially kicked Tuesday with five candidates running to succeed President Ricardo Lagos, four men and a woman. Opinion polls show the ruling coalition candidate very close to achieving the absolute majority in the first round thus avoiding a run off.

• Wednesday, September 14th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Surging oil prices force air industry to raise fares

  Anticipating huge losses because of soaring fuel prices Latinamerican and United States airlines have began raising fares in their regional flights.

• Tuesday, September 13th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Australia arrests Cambodian flagged toothfish poacher

  Australia arrested a Cambodian long-liner suspected of fishing illegally in sub-Antarctic waters which was later discovered to have 130 tons of Patagonian toothfish in the haul. The armed Australian patrol Oceanic Viking escorted Saturday the 76 metre, 2,145 tons Cambodian-flagged FV Taruman to port in Hobart in Tasmania, said Australian Fisheries Minister Ian Macdonald.

• Tuesday, September 13th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  G-10 bankers committed to keep inflation “low”

  The Central Banks of the ten leading industrial countries of the world warned that the strong surge in oil prices will slow global economic growth.

• Tuesday, September 13th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazil, Venezuela interested in Scorpone submarines

  The head of a French defence contractor Thales said the group expects Brazil, Venezuela and Singapore to become the next buyers of the Scorpene class conventional submarine jointly manufactured by France and Spain.

• Monday, September 12th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentine Illex landings doubled but not enough “to compensate”

  The Argentine Illex squid season was over before the calendar date but “it was far better than in 2004, almost double catches and with a real tempting commercial price increase close to 100%”, said Hugo Stecconi, vice-president of the Argentine Jiggers Chamber and head of Pesquera Madryn.