Magallanes Region in the extreme south of Chile requested from the central government a 20 year extension of the legislation which contemplates certain benefits for business and investment in the remote areas of the country.

Mercosur Foreign Affairs and Economy ministers met Friday in Montevideo to address asymmetries and non tariff restrictions inside the block, an ongoing issue which has become a source of growing contention between full members, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Headlines:
Three's a crowd; Preservation vs progress? Heritage concerns grow as Deans' smithy is demolished; Treasury behind in financial reporting to councillors; Police investigation - officer disciplined.
Britain will not enter into a process of sovereignty negotiations with which the people of Gibraltar are not themselves first content. That was the message from Jim Murphy the new British Minister for Europe at the Foreign Office to over 1,200 people gathered at the Guildhall in London for Gibraltar Day last Monday October 22.
The Chilean Congress Lower House Defence Committee arrived Thursday in Antarctica to strong gusts and freezing temperatures and with the purpose of exercising Chilean sovereignty in the midst of a growing controversy over off Antarctica sea bed claims.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said U.S. foreign policy is in part responsible for soaring oil prices and predicted that crude will continue its upward spiral rapidly closing in on the 100 US dollars per barrel benchmark.

Argentina's First Lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is set to win Sunday's presidential election according to all the public opinion polls published in the Buenos Aires media a few hours before the two days ban on political campaigning becomes effective.

Chilean appellate court has dropped corruption charges against the widow and children of the late former dictator Augusto Pinochet. The general's family was alleged to have assisted him hide more than 30 million US dollars in offshore accounts during his 1973 to 1990 rule.

Cristina Kirchner the leading candidate for Argentina Sunday's presidential election, during these last four years, as well as her husband President Nestor Kirchner has avoided contact with the Argentine press but this last week she has been particularly loquacious.

With only a few hours left for Sunday's Argentine presidential election First Lady and incumbent candidate Cristina Kirchner talked about one of the controversial issues of the campaign which is also a daily challenge for Argentines pockets: the consumer price index and inflation.