
A historic lawsuit loss to Uruguay over tobacco-related cancer damages and other technological developments have Philip Morris focusing on new alternatives. I think the time will come when we will have enough acceptance of these alternative products to begin to propose, along with the governments, a gradual elimination of conventional cigars, the company CEO Andre Calantzopoulos announced.

Uruguay's derby between Peñarol and Nacional was called off on Sunday after fans clashed with police in and around the Centenario stadium, while cooking gas carafes were dropped from the stands against officers injuring several. An estimated 150 hooligans were finally arrested by riot policy with horses and dogs and the match was suspended when the police said it could not guarantee the safety of players and people at the stadium.

Uruguay will expand sewage and rainwater drainage systems in Montevideo and improve management of City Hall's sanitation system thanks to a US$60 million loan approved by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The money represents the second stage of a line of credit that the IDB approved for investment projects in December 2006.

Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez is off to Europe for a two-week business and academic interests trip which begins on Friday in Spain and will continue in the Vatican, Austria and France. On Friday, Vazquez is scheduled to hold a private meeting with King Felipe IV of Spain, and on Monday with president Mariano Rajoy.

Uruguay's deputy tourism minister said that based on current trends the number of international tourist arrivals during the current summer season, which peaks in December and January, should rise by more than 10%.

Uruguay became the first member state of the Organization of American States (OAS) to deposit the instrument of ratification of the Inter-American Convention on the Protection of the Human Rights of Elderly Persons. The Permanent Representative of Uruguay, Hugo Cayrús, recalled that the legislature of his country ratified the Convention in September.

Venezuela will continue as member of Mercosur but with no right to vote, since it has not fully incorporated all the group's rules and regulations as had been agreed, revealed Uruguay's foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa on Friday in Montevideo.

The lorry drivers' strike already under way in Uruguay, which broke up as a conflict between freight carriers and the agriculture sectors, may have its impact on the distribution of car petrol, warns Mauro Borzzaconi of the trucking association.

Uruguay plans to improve the rural roads network of the 18 department governments with support from two credit lines for an investment project totalling US$600 million with two initial loans completing US$150 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The funds will support the implementation of rural roads construction in agriculture production areas, and will also be geared to improve and strengthen fiscal management and services at the departmental government level.

With a budget of 100 million dollars, construction of the 35-story building may start in June next year and be finished by 2020, it was announced by the same developers in charge of the residential project in Punta del Este under the name of next President of the United States.