Falklands: News Direct (Monday, 18 August 2003)

WINDS:

Seventy-eight MPH was was the highest gust recorded at MPA on Saturday. The high winds caused havoc in the Islands, in particular MPA with the LanChile and the BFBS Transmitter. The LanChile plane landed in the afternoon and, while it was on the ground, couldn’t unload the cargo from the plane as it was too dangerous. Fortunately, incoming passengers did manage to get their baggage, which came through a smaller hatch which opened inwards. The Aircraft finally left MPA at around 1900. Because no cargo was unloaded from the plane, several businesses have been affected. Falkland Printz had their paper onboard and unfortunately will not be able to keep their promise of a fast recovery from the current backlog. They ask people to be patient and bare with them, as do DHL, which are in the same boat. They say it is unlikely that the DHL will arrive before the weekend and apologise for any inconvenience. And, fresh produce may be a bit short this week, as 2 tonnes of cargo for Stanley Growers also went back out on the flight.

BFBS:

BFBS report that they have lost the satellite link to all eight receivers. They do say that they will get all systems up and running at some point today. Radio listeners to 96.5 FM have, on the other hand, been able to listen in, as the technician at BFBS managed to link up with the internet. As soon as we have any more information, we will let you know.

TOURIST FLIGHTS:

Flights to Antarctica from the Falklands could take on a new look this summer. Punta Arenas’s DAP Airways are to receive a lease on a 50 seater refurbished DeHaverland Dash 7. This is going to be used during the season for charter flights to Antarctica and possibly (they are hoping) the Falklands. Over the past few weeks, we have had a representative from Antarctica 21 and more recently, on Friday, there was Debbi Summers talking about a new offer that’s being offered to tourists to King George Island passing over the rough trip through Drake Passage. The plane will be used for this purpose of ferrying passengers to the Island. DAP say they will also be available for cargo and passenger transport to any of the country missions operating in Antarctica.

DARTS IN THE VICTORY:

The high winds on Saturday didn’t affect play in the Victory Bar, where the final 16 players fought it out in the mini-darts. Teddy Summers emerged victorious and £100.00 richer after he beat Ken McLeod. Alan Webb was third and Peter Goss, 4^th in the competition.

MEAT:

How would you like to eat Ostrich? A Chilean farmer who started up an Ostrich farm in the Magallanes region 10 years ago is now trying to convince local chefs that the red meat is not only leaner, tastier and free of cholesterol but also makes some wonderful combinations. The owner said that the next step would be to export the meat overseas, taking advantage of the Puerto Natales abattoir that specialises in selling rabbit and hares to the European Union.

POLICE NEWS:

The Police have two incidents to report on the weekend. The first caused a great deal of confusion when they got a report of a traffic accident at Salvador Point. The person involved luckily had no injuries. The fire service was tasked but as there was so much confusion as to where Salvador Point actually was, they didn’t end up going. The whereabouts was eventually found to be Kings Ridge. The vehicle was reported to have swerved on the gravel and came off the road, rolling over, first on to its side and then on to its roof. The Police would like to thank everyone involved, including Carol and Terrance Phillips at Hope cottage, Rob and Jean Pitaluga at Salvador and Arthur and Rhoda at Douglas Station.

And, just after 1545 there was another traffic accident, this time in Stanley at the bottom of King Street. A vehicle was being towed when its brakes failed and, when it swerved to avoid hitting the vehicle in front, collided with a vehicle heading along St. Mary’s walk. The matter is being investigated and one person is helping Police with enquiries.

FISHING AND HARBOUR NEWS:

This weekend’s high winds caused slight damage to the CFL Pioneer. &8 Mile gusts bent an aerial on the long-liner. In the other Harbour news, Carrier LUMA arrived on Saturday to drop off equipment for the AWG South Georgia Project. She will be back with the rest of it on Friday. Tanker, Zalgares came in over the weekend and damaged trawler, Thera Lima had her engine fixed on Saturday and has now gone out to join the 34 other vessels fishing in the zone. Catches remain good for these vessels except for finfish, which are below average.

(100X Transcription Service)

The Australian Eastern Market Indicator recovered 20 cents on Wednesday and gained another seven cents on Thursday. The EMI thus closed the week up 27 cents at 926 A cents. The market was helped by "a slight lift in activity form overseas including China."

In New Zealand the Fine Indicator was not quoted whilst the Medium Indicator recovered another 12 cents to 672 NZ cents. The Strong Indicator was up six cents at 431 NZ cents and the Lamb Indicator up 16 cents to 457 NZ cents.

No wool auction in South Africa this week.

The British sale saw the indicator unchanged from 23/7/03 at 83 pence per kilo greasy. There was good competition on most types throughout the sale resulting in a clearance of 78 percent of the 2.17 million kilos offering.

For much of the week the Australian dollar was trading around A$2.44/£ whilst the New Zealand dollar was trading at about NZ$2.73/£.

Many European companies are on holiday resulting in limited enquiry.

With Regards

Robert Hall

"A" Press: Saturday, 16 August 2003

Clarin has an article this morning reporting the remarks by British diplomat Paul Davies who said that it would be beneficial for President Kirchner to visit the Falklands for the opening of the monument at Darwin next year. But an unnamed collaborator of Kirchner is quoted as saying that no Argentine official can go under the present rules which would require him to have his passport stamped. Clarin also says that Foreign Minister Bielsa is willing to search for some formula that might allow a visit "without generating negative precedents" for Argentina's sovereignty claim. Clarin also said that the politics mean that a visit cannot be subject to conditions from an immigration official (in this case a Falklands one). Lucio Garcia del Solar is quoted as saying the rule requiring Argentines to present their passports was the worst concession made by Argentina.

But the principal story over the last couple of days has been the arrest of two Montonero guerrillas by order of Judge Bonadio, who is a different judge to the one who arrested 43 military criminals from the Dirty War recently at the request of Spanish judge Garzon. Judge Bonadio has also requested the extradition of the Montonero leader Fermenich from Spain. This is really bizarre. The two Montoneros under arrest in Argentina are accused of tricking other Montoneros into returning to Argentina - where the military murdered them. While pretending to even handed treatment of all the criminals of the "Dirty War", this looks like a way of putting a shot across Kirchner's bows in his campaign against the military criminals of the dirty war era - and at the same time smearing the Montoneros. Trying to extradite Fermenich from Spain is crazy. He was in prison in Argentina for years for his crimes, but was lawfully released under President Menem's "indulto" or pardon. Now Argentina wants him back for trial in Argentina, while at the same time judge Garzon in Spain is trying to extradite other Argentine criminals for trial in Spain.

All this harking back to the dirty war is stirring up ugly sentiments - and an opinion poll yesterday revealed that 68% of people think it is not conducive to the development of the country.
In other news, President Kirchner has managed to irritate both his Vice President Scioli and Economy Minister Lavagna over various policies.

I think that the only important thing Kirchner has to do is ensure that the economic recovery continues. Although it's good to see criminals facing justice at last, he may be putting this at risk with his high profile actions against past enemies. One commentator said he was opening a Pandora's box.

(100X Translation Service)