"Bribery prevails," Nicanor Duarte said during his second visitto the site of the fire that destroyed Ycua Bolanos supermarket.

Construction regulations were breached, and the buildings lack an efficient security system, the president said, adding there were not enough emergency exits and extinguishers.

Bolanos said the incident, considered as the worst in the history of the country, must lead to reflections among people so as to avoid the repetition of the "terrible vices."

The fire broke out when the supermarket was crowded with Sunday midday shoppers. Reports said nearly 1,000 people had been inside the shopping center, which is part of the complex that also houses offices and an underground parking lot.

The supermarket owner Juan Pio Paiva and his son Victor Daniel Paiva, accused of manslaughter, were held in preventive detention on Tuesday, as eyewitnesses said the son ordered supermarket guards to close doors to prevent people from leaving without paying.

Bolanos also applauded the work of the rescue personnel. He said 170 of them are hospitalized in Asuncion and 40 of them in intensive care.

Forensic experts from Argentina, Colombia and the United States have started investigations into the cause of the fire. Paraguay's Interior Minister Orlando Fiorotto has ruled out a terrorist attack, saying that "investigations clearly pointed toward a gas leak and the rapid combustion of the merchandise."
 

Chile holds military drill near border with Peru
Chile conducted a military drill near its border with Peru on Thursday against the background that the bilateral relations are in tension because of their dispute over maritime boundary.

The drill, involving 290 troops, was overseen by Defense Minister Michelle Bachelet and Army Commander Juan Cheyre, the defense ministry said.

New mobile military engineering vehicles that can sweep land-mines and set up bridges were used in the exercise, said the ministry.

Peru insists that Chile agree to negotiations to redefine their maritime borderline and reclaim about 30,000 square km of sea. Chile says the issue was settled 50 years ago through a treaty on maritime border demarcation.

The relations between Chile and Peru have become more tense following a recent statement by Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo that Chile had agreed to review the 1929 border demarcation treaty. Chilean Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear rebuffed Toledo's remarks immediately.

Earlier, Peruvian Defense Minister Roberto Chiabra said Peru's armed forces were prepared for a conflict with Chile.
 

Brazil says no new nuclear inspections needed
Brazil plans to convince within two months the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that there is no need to further inspect its nuclear program before issuing licenses to its two new uranium-enrichment plants, an official said on Thursday.

The Brazilian government expects to obtain the licenses before October when the two new plants are expected to be operational in Resende, in Rio de Janeiro, Science and Technology Minister Eduardo Campos said.

The state-run Brazil news agency quoted the minister as saying that he is confident that Brazil is going to "obtain the license for the Resende plant."

The two new plants will enrich Brazilian uranium to 5 percent, which will be utilized as fuel in the nuclear plants Angra I and II, the facilities that supply most of Rio de Janeiro's electricity.

The minister said that in two months, the first stage of this plant should be completed. It utilizes "ultra-centrifugal uranium-enriching devices developed with Brazilian technology, which are considered as more efficient than the technology that prevails in the United States," he said.

The Brazilian government has limited the IAEA inspections to certain areas of Resende, citing it needs to keep the technological secrets of the enrichment process.

Campos insisted that the Brazilian nuclear policy has peaceful aims. He said Brazil is the only country in the world in which allof its civilian and military facilities have obtained IAEA license.

In April, Brazil had a controversy with the IAEA, which demanded greater access to the Brazilian nuclear centers.

Brasilia insisted that its commitments are being "correctly" fulfilled and that the country needs to protect its own eco-industrial uranium-enrichment technology which is "efficient and economic."

The Resende plant, according to the government, "is the first uranium-enrichment factory of Latin America" and will allow the country to be self-sufficient in this region.

Brazil, which has the world's fifth largest reserve of uranium, had signed additional protocols tabled by the IAEA in connection with the uranium enrichment processes but Brazil is not required to unveil every detail.

Earlier, Brazil has declared that it was fulfilling its international obligations and reaffirmed the peaceful use of its nuclear program.
 

Russia writes off Nicaragua's debt
Russia and Nicaragua have signed an agreement to write off all the debt of the Central American country to Moscow, Russian news agencies reported Monday.

"There is no Nicaragua's debt any longer," the finance ministry's spokesman Sergei Kolotukhin was quoted by Ria-Novosti as saying.

The total amount of Nicaragua's debt to Russia had exceeded 3.4billion US dollars. In 1996, Russia had written off 90 percent of the debt dating back to Soviet era and had restructured the remaining 344 million dollars over a period of 15 years.

"Russia also agreed to write off 344 million dollars. Thus, there is no debt any longer," Kolotukhin was quoted as saying.

Most of Nicaragua's debt to Russia was for military items