Mercosur

• Monday, August 29th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Chavez offers poor US residents cheap heating oil

  Venezuela will offer heating fuel to United States poor residents at a 40% discount off the going market rate as well as 150,000 eye surgeries, announced President Hugo Chavez on Sunday

• Monday, August 29th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Santiago flooded and a cold front with snow

  After 70 millimeters of intense rainfall in just 24 hours followed by extensive flooding in the metropolitan area, eastern Santiago, next to the Andes, was exposed on Sunday to hail and then snow for the enjoyment of children unused to such a climatic phenomenon.

• Monday, August 29th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Duhalde, head of Mercosur Committee until December

  Eduardo Duhalde will continue as head of the Mercosur Standing Representatives Committee until December 26 and will not be involved in the “cheap politics and accusations” of the current Argentine mid term electioneering, revealed a close aide of the former Argentine caretaker president.

• Monday, August 29th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Crude oil tops $70 per barrel.

  Crude oil futures spiked to more than $70 (U.S.) a barrel for the first time as Hurricane Katrina took dead aim on U.S. oil and refinery operations Monday, shutting down an estimated one million barrels of refining capacity and sharply curbing offshore production in the region.

• Saturday, August 27th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Tsunami effect reached south Chile and Falklands

  Last December's tsunami which swept violently through a dozen countries in the Indian Ocean was also felt in such distant places as Peru, Canada, Chile and even the Falkland Islands according to a report published in “Science” magazine.

• Saturday, August 27th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Rio Group confirms support for Haiti and Chavez

  The Foreign and Deputy ministers of the Rio Group kicked off a two-day extraordinary meeting at Bariloche tourist centre in Argentina's Patagonia, following postponement of the Rio Summit of their presidents.

• Friday, August 26th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazil's inflation restless and record low unemployment

  Mid month thirty days consumer prices index in Brazil accelerated to 0,28% during August compared to 0,11% in July reported the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute, IBOPE.

• Friday, August 26th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  World energy shortage threatening Asian expansion

  Oil's surging price threatens with slowing Asia's economic expansion, whose strong demand for crude is precisely one of the main reasons for the ballooning of crude, said International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo Rato.

• Friday, August 26th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Buenos Aires Councillors planning Falklands' trip

  Buenos Aires City Councillors have under consideration a project creating a special commission to honour the hundreds of Argentines “who sacrificed their lives in the Malvinas war”.

• Friday, August 26th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Venezuela opens fields to Chinese oil corporation

  Venezuela and China signed a “preliminary agreement” for a joint company to drill for light and heavy crude in eastern Venezuela, reported the government owned Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA.