Between January and October 2010, 402,868 tonnes of tuna was caught in the eastern Pacific, 16 per cent less than the 478,633 tonnes landed in the same period in 2009, according to figures from the Association of Tuna Companies from Ecuador (Atunec).
More than 100 Police Special Forces violently evicted Rapa Nui indigenous groups from the Government Plaza in the center of Hanga Roa over the holidays, causing injuries to at least nine people, three of them serious.
Venezuelan government devalued its bolivar currency for the second time in 12 months on Thursday, abolishing the lowest exchange rate as the Opec member fights to revive its economy. Intended to spur local production in the largely import-dependent nation, the announcement followed a central bank estimate that the economy contracted 1.9 percent during 2010 - Venezuela's second straight year of recession.
A magnitude-7.1 earthquake has shaken southern Chile, frightening hundreds of people who fled for higher ground fearing it could generate a tsunami like the one that ravaged the coastline last year.