Hurricane Irma’s leading edge swirled toward Florida state with 195 km/h winds Saturday on a projected new track that could expose Tampa — not Miami — to a direct hit. Tampa has not taken a head-on blow from a major hurricane in nearly a century.
An earthquake of magnitude 8.1 struck off the southern coast of Mexico late on Thursday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, killing at least 61 people and triggering small tsunami waves but no major destruction.
A state of emergency has been declared in a British Overseas Territory hit by Hurricane Irma. British Virgin Islands governor Gus Jaspert said there were reports of casualties and fatalities, and help had been requested from the UK. He said radio and other communication channels were extremely limited.
Chile expects to close an energy swap deal with Argentina in the days ahead, Chilean Energy Minister Andres Rebolledo said in an interview Thursday. The neighboring nations are also negotiating the locations for five additional transmission line interconnection points, with an agreement expected as early as January, the minister revealed.
Uruguay's main agricultural, industrial and commercial show, Expo/Prado 2017 opened in Montevideo on Wednesday. The annual event, which this year is international, (it rotates with Argentina's Palermo show) is an opportunity for city people to admire the best cattle, sheep, horses and hogs of the region, and for the farmers a chance to see how much technology has advanced in the last twelve months.
The costs of the deadly storm in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico continued to mount on Thursday, with some analysts estimating losses that approach US$100bn. Harvey has killed more than 30 people and destroyed thousands of homes. Many firms in the region, a major transport hub that is a home to the oil and gas industry, don't know when they will resume normal operations.
The anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd has announced it will not intercept Japanese vessels in the Southern Ocean this season. The group's ships have confronted Japanese vessels off Antarctica each year since 2005.
Famous names including Sir David Attenborough, Bill Oddie, Chris Packham, Simon King and Nigel Marvin were all attendees of Birdfair where Falklands organizations annually promote the wealth of wildlife around the Islands.
Falkland Islands Senior Fisheries Scientist Dr Alexander Arkhipkin explains the habits of fur seals and the efforts undertaken to reduce by-catch in the Loligo fishery. Stocks of Falkland calamari (Loligo) are very prolific this year.
Brazilian company FS Bioenergia inaugurated a corn ethanol plant, the first in the country, to produce 210 million liters year. The plant was built by a joint venture between the local agro-company Fiagril and US-based Summit Agricultural Group with investments of BRL 450 million (US$ 141.1m), said the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Farming.