Mercosur

• Friday, June 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazilian political crisis refuses to abate

  Dilma Rousseff Brazilian president Lula da Silva's cabinet chief claimed that several political groups and activists are interested in eroding the president's image and advancing the presidential elections scheduled for October 2006.

• Friday, June 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Oil hits 60 US dollars pb and still going strong

  Texas intermediate light crude reached Thursday an all time record of 60 US dollars per barrel, closing at 59.42 US dollars, which represents a 42% increase since the beginning of 2005.

• Friday, June 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Eleven charred in longliner “Seimez” tragedy

  Uruguayan officials confirmed Thursday they had found the charred remains of eleven crewmembers from a Ukrainian longliner that caught fire in the port of Montevideo.

• Thursday, June 23rd 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Another blow for Brazilian president Lula da Silva

  A Brazilian court suspended the civil rights of Sao Paulo's former mayor Marta Suplicy, for a three-year period because of improper management of public funds while she was in office, reported the Brazilian press Wednesday.

• Thursday, June 23rd 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Truck industry complains Andes crossing “bottleneck”

  As an estimated 8,000 trucks which had been bogged by snow for over a week on both sides of the Argentine/Chilean border Andes crossing, Paso Internacional de los Libertadores, began moving, the Chilean transport industry is bitterly complaining about the country's economy “bottle neck”.

• Thursday, June 23rd 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Chilean Congress to investigate Lagos relatives and friends

  Chilean president Ricardo Lagos praised the creation of a Congressional committee to investigate alleged irregularities in government contracts awards involving a consulting company belonging to his brother in law and one of his closest friends.

• Thursday, June 23rd 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Controversial Cavallo is back and with political ambitions

  Former Argentine Economy minister Domingo Cavallo will be deciding in the next few days if he will run for a seat in the Lower House in the coming October elections, but what is definitive is his return to Argentina.

• Wednesday, June 22nd 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Peruvian region expands legal cultivation of coca

  The southern Peruvian region of Cuzco, whose like named hub was the imperial capital of the Inca, defied the central government Tuesday by enacting an ordinance expanding the legal cultivation of coca, the raw material of cocaine.

• Wednesday, June 22nd 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  The whales Won!

  The International Whaling Commission resoundingly rejected a proposal yesterday to end its almost two-decade-old ban on commercial whaling, dealing a blow to Japan and other pro-whaling nations that say stocks of some species have recovered enough to allow limited hunts.

• Wednesday, June 22nd 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Competition puts squeeze on world prices

  Global farm commodity prices will fall in real terms over the next decade under pressure from growing competition and productivity gains, the OECD said yesterday.