Environment

• Saturday, October 22nd 2011 - 04:23 UTC

  Bolivia’s Morales yields to Amazon Indian protests and scraps plan to build highway

  

  President Evo Morales said Friday that he was scrapping plans to build a highway through a nature reserve in Bolivia's jungle lowlands, bowing to public pressure after a two-month protest march by Amazon Indians.

• Thursday, October 20th 2011 - 06:48 UTC

  Repsol invites US to check its oil rig standards before drilling in Cuban waters

  

  Repsol YPF SA, which is scheduled to begin exploratory drilling in Cuban waters, has offered US agencies an opportunity to inspect the vessel and its equipment before it arrives at the well site, US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Director Michael R. Bromwich said.

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 18:42 UTC

  As volcanic ash cloud recedes air traffic returning to normal in Argentina and Uruguay

  

  Regular operations have gradually resumed at the main airports of Buenos Aires and in Montevideo’s Carrasco air terminal, where most flights had been cancelled since Sunday due to ash cloud generated from Chile's volcano eruption, authorities said.

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 13:50 UTC

  New environmental forum brings Falklands’ oil industry and environmentalists together

  

  Representatives of local conservation organisations, the oil industry, and the Falkland Islands Government recently attended the first meeting of the Falkland Islands Offshore Hydrocarbons Environmental Forum held on the 27th September in Stanley.

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 21:46 UTC

  Spanish corporation will construct 70ml bio-ethanol plant in Uruguay

  

  Spain’s Abengoa has announced that it will construct a bio-ethanol plant in the department of Paysandu, Uruguay, for Alcoholes de Uruguay, or ALUR. The contract, which includes the construction of an adjoining power cogeneration plant, is worth 120 million dollars.

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 03:57 UTC

  Volcanic ash forces flights’ suspension at Argentina and Uruguay main airports

  

  Argentina and Uruguay suspended flights at major airports Sunday due to dangerous ash from neighbouring Chile's Puyehue volcano, which has disrupted global travel since it erupted earlier this year.

• Thursday, October 13th 2011 - 05:43 UTC

  Massive car crash in Chile involves 51 vehicles kills 5 and injures over 50

  

  In Chile a massive car crash involving 23 trucks, 17 smaller vehicles and 11 buses left at least five dead and many others injured Wednesday morning, local authorities report. The accident occurred just past 7 a.m. at the turnoff for Algarrobo on the eastbound side of Route 68, which connects coastal Valparaíso to Santiago.

• Thursday, October 13th 2011 - 05:40 UTC

  Chile ranks last for income and education in OECD report

  

  Chile was ranked last for income, education and the quality of environment, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or OECD report on well-being released Oct. 12.

• Wednesday, October 12th 2011 - 05:58 UTC

  Uruguayan president on ten-day European trade and business tour

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica left on Tuesday for a ten day visit to Europe that will take him to Sweden, Norway, Germany and Belgium, where he is expected to promote trade, investments and economic development.

• Wednesday, October 12th 2011 - 05:54 UTC

  Mapuche Indians mourn the day Columbus set foot in the Americas

  

  More than then thousand people marched in the Chilean capital Santiago in support of the indigenous Mapuche people. The protest marked the 519th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, the start of the Spanish conquest.