Mercosur

• Thursday, October 14th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Uruguayan presidential race moves to Buenos Aires.

  The two leading candidates for the coming presidential election in Uruguay next October 31 will be travelling to Buenos Aires to campaign among the many Uruguayans living in Argentina.

• Wednesday, October 13th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Honduras declared free of land mines.

  The Assistance Program for Removing Mines in Central America, PADCA, finished last Friday clearing Honduran territory from dangerous war devices left over from the eighties in the midst of the Cold War.

• Wednesday, October 13th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Preventing “bloodbath” in Rio's shanty towns.

  Following a public warning from Amnesty International Rio de Janeiro police occupied two favelas, (shanty towns) fearing fighting between rival drug gangs could escalate into “a bloodbath”.

• Wednesday, October 13th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Chile-Argentina relation is “more than gas or an article”

  Chilean President Ricardo Lagos strongly stated that relations with Argentina involve “more than gas and more than a newspaper column” and they “are the exact level where they must be”.

• Wednesday, October 13th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  APEC tourism summit in Punta Arenas.

  Delegations from eighteen Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, APEC, members plus representatives from four world tourism organizations will be participating this week in the most important ever tourism summit to be held in Punta Arenas.

• Wednesday, October 13th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Kirchner's administration: “the most hostile since Galtieri”

  Argentine media reacted this week to the editorial of the latest “Falkland Islands Newsletter” edition which describes the current President Kirchner government ”as the most hostile since (General) Galtieri”.

• Tuesday, October 12th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Petrobras targets Patagonia and offshore Mar del Plata

  Following the discovery of two new hydrocarbons areas in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Brazilian government oil company Petrobras announced plans to invest 1,4 billion US dollars from now until 2007.

• Tuesday, October 12th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Saudi Arabia and Kuwait promise more oil

  “The problem is not OPEC, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and production but international concern resulting from political factors”, said Saudi Arabia's Oil minister Sheik Ali al-Naimi during an energy conference this weekend in Dubai.

• Tuesday, October 12th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Punta Arenas Antarctic agenda

  A full week of Antarctic related events are scheduled this week in Punta Arenas sponsored by the Chilean Antarctic Institute and the coming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation tourism summit to be held next November.

• Tuesday, October 12th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentine-Chilean incident is “over”

  Argentina and Chile ministers of Defence described the recent joint military exercises in the extreme south border area as “proof of integration” and emphasized that the latest diplomatic incident between both countries “belonged to the past”.