Mercosur

• Friday, February 25th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Standard Chartered to expand LatAm franchise with new office.

  UK banking group Standard Chartered plans to open a representative office in Chile to tap growing trade with Asia, the bank's head of Latin America, Rodolfo Alborelli told BNamericas.

• Thursday, February 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Torres del Paine blaze: “ecological disaster”

  Torres del Paine Park in Chilean Patagonia was definitively closed to tourists Wednesday following almost a week of raging blazes that have destroyed so far anywhere between 9,000 and 11,000 hectares of pristine grassland, shrubs and woods.

• Thursday, February 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  US inflation low, but interest rates are “quite low”

  Consumer prices in United States advanced 0,1% last January following a drastic drop in energy prices for the second consecutive month, according to a release this week from the Labour Department.

• Thursday, February 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Chilean delegation to London Food Exhibit.

  A numerous delegation of Chilean businessmen will be present at the coming International Food Fair scheduled in London March 13/16.

• Thursday, February 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Bolivia supports Mexican candidate for OAS chair.

  Bolivian Foreign Affairs minister Juan Ignacio Siles said his country could not support a Chilean candidate for the post of Secretary General of the Organization of American States, OAS, because it could be harmful to its country's maritime claims.

• Thursday, February 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Paraguay: massive purge in security forces.

  Paraguayan president Nicanor Duarte Frutos sacked Interior Minister, Nelson Mora, and at least 55 Police officers, the greatest security forces purge ever, in the framework of the investigation on the abduction and killing of a former president's daughter.

• Thursday, February 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Mercosur approaches Arab countries.

  Mercosur and the Gulf Cooperation Council are moving closer to begin trade negotiations in the framework of a more ample understanding, said Brazilian Foreign Secretary Celso Amorim who is currently several Arab countries.

• Thursday, February 24th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Ousted Argentine Air Force Chief accused of “cover up”

  In a harsh speech Argentine President Nestor Kirchner said Wednesday he wasn't moved “by some tears”, and accused the sacked Air Force Commander in Chief (and a Malvinas hero) Carlos Rhode of “cover up” in a drug traffic scandal in the country's main air terminal Ezeiza.

• Wednesday, February 23rd 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Mercosur-EU trade talks to resume March/April

  Mercosur-European Union trade negotiations will resume during the first half of 2005, according to the latest report from Spanish Foreign Secretary Miguel Angel Morentinos.

• Wednesday, February 23rd 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Antarctica: Argentina celebrates 101 years

  Argentina confirmed its commitment to the Antarctic Treaty on Tuesday as it celebrated 101 years of uninterrupted presence on the frozen continent where it maintains six scientific research stations.