Mercosur

• 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.

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

  Foreign confidence in Brazilian economy

  Brazilian holdings overseas increased 14,6% in 2004 totalling 94,7 billion US dollars according to the latest report from the Brazilian Central Bank which attributes the expansion to the greater internationalization of the country's economy.

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

  Football 2014 World Cup will be played in Brazil

  The president of the Chilean Football Association Reinaldo Sánchez almost but confirmed Brazil as the country that will be hosting in South American the 2014 World Football Cup, discarding a joint Argentina/Chile organization.

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

  Nicaragua, the next “hot spot” for OAS

  The Organization of American States, OAS, Secretary General, Jose Miguel Insulza warned this week that a “serious political crisis” is brewing in Nicaragua, Central America, and called on member countries to continue working in helping solve the challenging situation.

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

  Longliner catches fire in Montevideo; 11 feared dead

  Eleven of 39 crewmembers of Ukrainian longliner “Simeiz” moored in Montevideo which caught fire early Wednesday remain missing. The vessel had to be tugged out to the bay because she was carrying six tons of ammonia and had recently refuelled.

• Tuesday, June 21st 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Oil prices moving to the 60/65 US dollars pb range

  Oil prices rose to almost 60 US dollars per barrel on Monday following growing security concerns in Nigeria, a strike threat in Norway and deepening worries about insufficient refining capacity.