Mercosur

• Saturday, February 19th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Ezeiza drugs scandal sweeps with Air Force chief.

  Argentine president Nestor Kirchner named this Friday a new Air Force Commander following a drug traffic scandal involving the airline Southern Winds and the Aeronautics police in the country's main air terminal Ezeiza in Buenos Aires.

• Saturday, February 19th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Breaking News.

  Headlines:
  DAP moves into the maritime business; Fire consumes 4,000 hectares in Torres del Paine; Magellan Strait waters highly contaminated; Magallanes Region expanded 4,5% in spite of methanol.

• Saturday, February 19th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Paraguay prepares to purge police cadres.

  In an atmosphere of growing political tension, Paraguayan president Nicanor Duarte Flores is considering a purge the country's police cadres following alleged “interferences” in efforts to find Cecilia Cubas, daughter of former president Raul Cubas, who had been kidnapped and her body was found this week.

• Saturday, February 19th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Andes tragedy objects found 32 years later.

  An American tourist found while climbing an Argentine mountain personal objects belonging to one of the Uruguayan survivors of the air tragedy which occurred 32 years ago in the Andes.

• Friday, February 18th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentine growth prompts new creditor demands.

  Private creditors on Thursday seized on the latest growth figures from Argentina as proof that the country could improve its offer to restructure a record $100bn (£52.8bn) of defaulted debt.

• Friday, February 18th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  US Puts Cold Cloth to Small Friction with Argentina

  Lino Gutierrez, US Ambassador to Argentina, lowered the tone Thursday to a controversy caused by a US report alerting its citizens on the possible risks of traveling to Argentina.

• Thursday, February 17th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Venezuelan economy expanded 17,3% last year.

  Rocketed by strong oil prices and political stability Venezuela's economy surged 17,3 % in 2004 following two years of significant contraction, and according to a release from the Venezuelan Central Bank this was the largest increase “since indexes began to be recorded”.

• Thursday, February 17th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  China outpaces US as main consumer nation.

  China became in 2004 the world's main consumer of several basic items for industrial countries (commodities and energy), --displacing United States--, according to a report from the Washington based Earth Policy Institute.

• Thursday, February 17th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Colombian president en route to re-election.

  Colombian President Alvaro Uribe would be comfortably re-elected if the vote were held this week according to the latest public opinion polls, reported the country's main radio network Radio Caracol.

• Thursday, February 17th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  CIA's “potentially” unstable countries list.

  United States Central Intelligence Agency Director, Porter Goss identified Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti, Cuba and Mexico a countries “potentially” unstable in 2005.