Mercosur

• Sunday, February 13th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Lula after contracts from oil rich Venezuela.

  Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrives Sunday for a state visit to Venezuela when he will be signing with his counterpart Hugo Chavez a strategic cooperation agreement encompassing several fields.

• Sunday, February 13th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Fisheries News.

  Headlines:
  Argentine Navy arrests Taiwanese jigger; EC expedites relief to tsunami-battered fisheries.

• Sunday, February 13th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  2004, fourth warmest year on record.

  Greenhouse gases and to a lesser extent the El Niño current in the Pacific contributed to making 2004 the fourth warmest year on Earth since temperature measurements began worldwide at the end of the 19th century, revealed NASA scientists.

• Saturday, February 12th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Puerto Rican governor wants referendum on island's status.

  Puerto Rican Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila offered a bill Friday calling for a referendum to decide a procedure for resolving the political status of the island, which is currently a U.S. commonwealth.

• Saturday, February 12th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Queen Sonja visits the “White Continent”.

  Queen Sonja landed on the new Norwegian airfield in the Antarctic just after midnight in a Norwegian Hercules transport plane from Cape Town in South Africa following a nine-hour flight.

• Friday, February 11th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Magallanes Corriedale pioneer dies in Punta Arenas.

  A leading farmer and Corriedale pioneer from Magallanes Region died this week in Punta Arenas of respiratory complications at the age of 87.

• Friday, February 11th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile honours Argentine Foreign Secretary Bielsa.

  The Chilean government bestowed Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs Rafael Bielsa with one the country's most important honours, the Great Cross of the Bernardo O'Higgins Merit Order, in recognition for his “constant work encouraging and maintaining the good level of bilateral relation”.

• Thursday, February 10th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile to appeal to WTO over EU's salmon barriers.

  Chile said it has appealed to the World Trade Organization against limits placed by the European Union on farmed salmon imports at the beginning of February.

• Thursday, February 10th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Brazil: Last Day of Carnival.

  Street bands snarled traffic across the city as tens of thousands of paraders took to the streets Tuesday for the final day of carnival.

• Thursday, February 10th 2005 - 20:00 UTC

  Lula celebrates party's anniversary.

  Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil's president, has much to commemorate during Thursday's anniversary of the governing Workers' party, which he helped found as a union leader 25 years ago.