Mercosur

• Tuesday, August 30th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Significant drop in Chilean unemployment

  Unemployment in Chile reached 8,6% in the May-July quarter of this year, which represent a considerable drop from the 9,7% of a year ago, according to the latest release from the Chilean Statistics Institute.

• Tuesday, August 30th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  OAS calls for extradition to Venezuela of anti-Castro agent

  Organization of American States Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza has called on the United States Justice to extradite the anti-Castro agent Luis Posada to Venezuela, and so contribute with the world war on terrorism.

• Tuesday, August 30th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Record winter season in Chile's ski resorts

  The tourism winter season in Chile has been described as the best in the last five years with a significant jump in the number of foreign visitors, reported Oscar Santelices head of the Chilean Tourist Office, Sernatur.

• Tuesday, August 30th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazil's ruling party housecleaning operation aborted

  The man hand-picked by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to restore trust in the ruling Workers Party (PT) amid Brazil's worst political scandal in more than a decade announced Monday that he will not seek re-election as party chairman next month.

• Tuesday, August 30th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Squid ban extended for the rest of the season

  The Argentine Federal Fisheries Council (CFP) unanimously decided to keep the ban on squid (Illex argentinus) north of parallel 44º South for the rest of the season ”given the poor performance of the Buenos Aires-North Patagonian Stock (SBNP) cruise survey and maturity assessment”.

• Tuesday, August 30th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  France insists with air ticket tax to fight poverty

  France is planning to launch a tax on airline tickets next year to help finance the global fight against poverty, President Jacques Chirac said on Monday.

• Tuesday, August 30th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  France Compiles Blacklist for Airlines

  Reacting to the “black month” of August France published a list of airlines that aren't allowed to fly its airspace, thus beating European regulators to the punch.

• Tuesday, August 30th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Antarctica tremors help prove Earth's two speed rotation

  Tremors occurred in the South Sandwich Islands near Antarctica and detected by seismometers near Fairbanks, Alaska helped elucidate a decades' long geophysics controversy regarding the Earth's rotation and magnetic field.

• Tuesday, August 30th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  New chapter for Mercosur-EU negotiations

  The European Union and Mercosur will attempt to resume negotiations for a political association and free trade agreement, which have been stalled since October 2004, in next Friday's ministerial meeting to be held in Brussels.

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

  Ozone layer hole over Antarctica growing

  The winter hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica appears to have grown from last year but is still smaller than in 2003, when it was at its largest, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Tuesday.