Rio de Janeiro  - Brazil's national development bank mulls a 700-million-dollar loan to Argentina's national carrier Aerolineas Argentinas to finance the acquisition of Brazilian-made planes.

Luciano Coutinho, the president of Brazil's national development bank BNDES said Friday that the country would provide a loan to the Argentinian government.

Aerolineas Argentinas is said to plan buying 26 of Brazil's Embraer 190 passenger planes to replace older Boeing and McDonnell Douglas jets.

Prague  - Czechs continue to reject US plans for building a missile defence radar base on Czech Republic soil, according to an opinion poll released Thursday, less than three weeks before US President Barack Obama's planned visit to Prague.

The regular survey by the state-funded CVVM polling institute, conducted in early February, said that 70 per cent of the 1,113 polled Czechs opposed the base, while 25 per cent backed it. Five per cent were undecided.

London  - Britain's Competition Commission confirmed Thursday that two of London's airports must be sold to a new owner in order to break up the monopoly held by operator BAA and improve services for passengers.

The regulator said Gatwick and Stansted airports will have to change hands, as well as one airport in Scotland - either Edinburgh or Glasgow.

The announcement after a two-year investigation follows a recommendation made by the Commission last December to end the dominance of BAA in the running of airports.

The sale of Gatwick airport in London is already under way. BAA will retain control over Heathrow airport, the major international hub in London.

New study findings released today show airlines worldwide lost more than $1.4 billion to online fraudsters during the last year (2008), about 1.3% of worldwide airlines’ online revenue.

The facts comes from a new independent Airline Online Fraud Survey commissioned by CyberSource Corporation in collaboration with Airline Information LLC and completed January, 2009.

Singapore - A Singapore court on Friday fined a Danish aircraft engineer a total of 1,200 Singapore dollars (780 US dollars) for being drunk and behaving in a disorderly manner on board a Singapore Airlines flight, news report said.

Kim Borch Petersen, 39, pleaded guilty to being drunk on board the flight from London to Singapore on Thursday and also admitted to shouting, uttering vulgarities and pushing a steward, the online edition of Straits Times newspaper reported.

Washington  - One man was rescued and 16 people were missing after a helicopter crashed into the Atlantic Ocean Thursday while taking workers to an oil platform off Canada's east coast, Canadian news reports said.

Searchers recovered the body of the 18th person who was on board the helicopter, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation news service reported.