Mercosur

• Saturday, August 20th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Venezuela plans to increase oil production and refining

  Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez announced that the government owned oil company, PDVSA, will build three new refineries and said he was willing to discuss a new range of prices with the Oil Producing Export Countries, OPEC

• Saturday, August 20th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Ecuador's oil production virtually shut down

  Ecuador's Defence minister resigned abruptly Friday shortly after the country sent the military to occupy its Amazon region and declared a state of emergency following attacks on infrastructure which cut production 65%.

• Saturday, August 20th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  IMF lowers global growth forecast because of oil

  The International Monetary Fund warns that the surge in oil prices has become a serious risk for the global economy, reports the German daily Handesblatt quoting the coming IMF World Economic Outlook.

• Friday, August 19th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  August air crashes anticipate tighter safety measures

  The recent tragic air disasters, from the total loss crashes in Greece and Venezuela to the skidding off the runway by a landing aircraft in Canada fortunately with no victims, are putting on pressure for greater international safety standards and inspections.

• Friday, August 19th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Chilean Peso, stronger than ever

  The Chilean peso is the sixth currency at world level in appreciating against the US dollar so far this year. However at Latinamerican level the Chilean peso ranks fourth behind the Brazilian Real, Uruguayan Peso and Mexican Peso.

• Friday, August 19th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Bs. Aires: Pickets wreak traffic havoc

  Organized groups of the unemployed disrupted the life of porteños yesterday as they protested at full strength in Buenos Aires and its suburbs to call for an increase in subsidies.

• Thursday, August 18th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  US initiative to contain Chavez involvement

  United States Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld in a brief visit to Paraguay praised the local government for its commitment to combat terrorism and “develop free from all foreign influence”.

• Thursday, August 18th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Minorities make up a third of the US population

  United States is following on the steps of its most populated states such as California and Texas where the sum of the ethnic and racial minorities is equivalent to half the population according to the latest report from the Census Office.

• Thursday, August 18th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Chileans overseas residents total 857.781

  Chile's overseas population totals 857.781 according to the two year census jointly undertaken by the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Statistics Institute.

• Thursday, August 18th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  EU raised Chile's risk of contracting “mad cow”

  The European Union officially informed Chile that it was raising the country's risk of contracting Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, “mad cow”, because Chile imported meat and bone meal from Canada and United States between 1997 and 2000.