Mercosur

• Monday, January 19th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Spanish King promises Antarctic conservation support.

  Spain's King Juan Carlos who last Saturday in Punta Arenas ended his official four days state visit to Chile said that visiting Spanish and Chilean scientific posts in Antarctica had reinforced his commitment to keep working for the conservation of the icebound continent.

• Monday, January 19th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  UK-Spain collaboration in Guatemala-Belize

  Bill Rammell, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs visited Guatemala and Belize between 13-17 January. Mr. Rammell attended the inauguration of the new Guatemalan President, Oscar Berger and later visited a UK-funded project in a community near the Adjacency Zone in Guatemala.

• Monday, January 19th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Latinamerica attracts more private investment

  Foreign investment in Latinamerica should grow a robust 47% during 2004 because of a better world business atmosphere and particularly the recovery of the Brazilian economy, according to a group of private financial institutions.

• Monday, January 19th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Closer ties between India and Mercosur

  Mercosur members and India have scheduled a meeting in late January when a tariff preference agreement will be signed, said Marco Aurelio García, Brazilian presidential advisor for international relations.

• Monday, January 19th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  New Air Force One for President Lula

  By the end of the year the Brazilian presidency will have a brand new state of the art 56,7 million US dollars ACJ Airbus replacing an old “junky” Boeing 707 built in the seventies.

• Saturday, January 17th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  IMF's lending to Argentina 'risks breaking rules'

  The International Monetary Fund is in danger of breaking its own rules by continuing to lend to Argentina despite the Argentines' fractious and litigious negotiations with their bondholders, according to the leading association of global financial institutions.

• Friday, January 16th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile-Bolivia relations deteriorate further.

  Chile said Thursday that Bolivia's recent verbal escalation of a dispute over Pacific coastline, far from paving the way toward progress, has put the centenarian issue “back to square one.”

• Friday, January 16th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentina opens hake fishery south of parallel 41°

  The Argentine National Undersecretary of Fishery and Aquaculture has authorised the extraction of 69,200 tonnes of Argentine hake (hubbsi) during the first three months of 2004 for vessels operating to the south of parallel 41º S.

• Friday, January 16th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Military tortured commando trainees in democratic Argentina.

  The government revealed Thursday that the military engaged in torture techniques at a commando training camp years after Argentina's return to democracy, a disclosure that human rights organizations described as “the tip of an iceberg.”

• Friday, January 16th 2004 - 20:00 UTC

  Former HMS Sheffield in Puerto Belgrano

  Chilean frigate “Almirante Williams”, former “HMS Sheffield”, currently berthed in Argentina's main naval base, Puerto Belgrano, was visited Friday morning by the Defence ministers of Chile and Argentina, Michelle Bachelet and José Pampuro.