Mercosur

• Monday, July 18th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Bush lobbying strongly for “pro-jobs” Cafta

  Facing continued political resistance in the Lower House, United States President George W. Bush took his defense of the Central American Free Trade Agreement directly to the industrial heartland with a visit on Friday to a textile factory in North Carolina.

• Monday, July 18th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Alvarez admits he will “consider” a cabinet post

  Former Argentine vice-president admitted his interest in a cabinet post in the president Kirchner administration, following the mid term October election results.

• Monday, July 18th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Machu Picchu park forest on fire

  A forest fire which broke out in the world known Archeological Machu Picchu Park in the Andes highlands has been burning for the last four days with little prospects of a quick extinction reports the Peruvian newspapers.

• Monday, July 18th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Venezuela will launch a satellite in 2008 from China

  President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that Venezuela plans to launch a satellite from China in 2008 enabling the country to “obtain strategic information on all types of communications”.

• Monday, July 18th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazil purchases 12 French Mirage 2000

  Brazil purchased twelve French combat aircraft Mirage 2000 during the official visit of President Lula da Silva to Paris where he was the guest of honour for the July 14th Bastille Day celebrations.

• Monday, July 18th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Preparing for the big November summit

  Foreign Affairs ministers from the Group of Rio, G-Rio, will be discussing this week in Buenos Aires actions to help stabilize the situation in Haiti and the agenda of the coming Summit of the Americas, scheduled for next November and with the participation of United States president George Bush.

• Sunday, July 17th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Hurricane Emily will hover over Mexico for the next three days

  Mexican authorities launched a massive evacuation of Caribbean resorts. Two pilots die in evacuation of Mexican oil rigs. Crude oil climbs.

• Saturday, July 16th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  US opens border to Canadian young cattle

  A United States federal court ruled that meatpackers can again import Canadian cattle ending a two year ban imposed after Canada admitted its first case of mad cow disease.
  Cattle must be under 30 months old.

• Saturday, July 16th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina-Uruguay dispute over cellulose project

  Uruguay will go ahead with the establishment of two cellulose plants along the river Uruguay which it shares with Argentina in spite of Buenos Aires alleged environmental objections that have reached the World Bank, one of co financers of the billion plus US dollars project.

• Saturday, July 16th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Moderate optimism in pre-WTO discussions

  World Trade ministers meeting in China have moved to more flexible positions on reducing agricultural tariffs, thus making possible advances in long-stalled World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, according to Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Peter Allgeier.