Mercosur

• Monday, July 26th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  “There's no way a General can accumulate that money”

  The current investigation into former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet bank accounts is directed preliminarily to discover infringements of tax legislation since the funds deposited in the Riggs Bank of Washington DC were never included in the General's 1994/98 tax statements, according to Santiago press reports.

• Sunday, July 25th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  US Productivity faster than job creation.

  United States Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan said that the growing productivity in the US economy and the rather shallow recession of 2001 are the main reasons for the weak job creation response of the latest recovery.

• Saturday, July 24th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Soybean price dip costs Argentina $ 937 million.

  A drop in the world price of soybeans over the past three months will result in a loss of some $937 million in export revenue fro Argentina, Buenos Aires daily Ambito Financiero reported this Friday.

• Saturday, July 24th 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Good news for president Lula da Silva.

  Employment and direct foreign investment increased during June in Brazil indicating a possible strong rebound of domestic demand. According to the latest release from the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute, IBGE, unemployment in June drooped to 11,7%, half a point compared to May and the second month running it has contracted.

• Friday, July 23rd 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Punta Arenas as gateway to Antarctica.

  Punta Arenas is preparing for a month full of international activity that should help the city boost tourism and confirm its condition as gateway to Antarctica.

• Friday, July 23rd 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  New Carrasco air terminal.

  Carrasco, Uruguay's main airport is undergoing a rapid expansion and renewal process involving millions of dollars and with the objective of converting it in a regional hub for Mercosur countries.

• Thursday, July 22nd 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Uruguay ranks sixth in organic farmland.

  With 800,000 certified hectares, Uruguay is ranked sixth internationally among the world's countries with most organic farmland.

• Thursday, July 22nd 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Personalities will monitor Venezuela's referendum.

  Former presidents and rulers, artists, Nobel Prize winners, bishops and even actors have been invited as observers for the recall referendum of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to be held next August 15.

• Thursday, July 22nd 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Martian meteorite found by NASA in Antarctica.

  While rovers and orbiting spacecraft scour Mars searching for clues to its past, researchers from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Agency, NASA have uncovered another piece of the red planet in Antarctica

• Thursday, July 22nd 2004 - 21:00 UTC

  Petrobras drills in Amazon basin.

  Brazilian government oil company Petrobras next year will be drilling new wells in the Urucu southeast basin in the Amazon jungle, 650 kilometers from Manaos.