Environment

• Monday, April 12th 2010 - 05:30 UTC

  Rio do Janerio’s mud slides death toll could reach 400; focus on “responsibility”

  

  While rescuers raced against time amid fading hopes of finding survivors of a huge mudslide in the Rio do Janeiro area with over 400 people now feared dead in some of the worst flooding to swamp Brazil in decades, focus has turned on responsibility for the magnitude of the catastrophe.

• Monday, April 12th 2010 - 05:09 UTC

  Hollywood stars support natural park conservation project in Ecuador

  

  Hollywood stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Glenn Close are willing to support an environment-conservation project in Ecuador that would prevent the extraction of 850 million barrels of oil from the Amazon.

• Thursday, April 8th 2010 - 23:16 UTC

  Latest mudslide may have killed 200 people in Rio do Janeiro

  

  A landslide in a Rio de Janeiro satellite city may have killed 200 people as rains that started earlier this week continue to saturate the soil of the hilly region home to 12 million people, the state’s civil defense office said on Thursday.

• Thursday, April 8th 2010 - 01:27 UTC

  Rio declares three days of mourning, while many city services remain paralyzed

  

  At least 113 people died, over 100 were injured and 1,410 were left homeless in a storm that devastated Brazil's state of Rio de Janeiro since Monday evening, authorities said Wednesday.

• Wednesday, April 7th 2010 - 23:37 UTC

  Chagos archipielago MPS, doubles protected area of world’s oceans

  

  British Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced last week the creation of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). The move doubles the total officially protected area of the world's oceans.

• Wednesday, April 7th 2010 - 22:34 UTC

  Vatican State Secretary visits Chile in support of quake victims

  

  The secretary of Vatican State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone arrived in Chile this week for an extended visit which includes a meeting with President Sebastian Piñera.

• Wednesday, April 7th 2010 - 06:03 UTC

  Olympic Rio do Janeiro collapses under heavy rains leaving at least 100 dead

  

  Landslides and floods set off by the heaviest rains in decades killed at least 100 people in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, making hundreds homeless, flooding roads and paralyzing Brazil's second city, officials said.

• Wednesday, April 7th 2010 - 02:50 UTC

  Heavy fuel ban expected to halve Antarctic cruise-only passengers by 2012

  

  Beginning in August 2011, most large cruise ships will no longer be able to sail in Antarctica. The International Maritime Organization last week adopted a ban on using and carrying heavy fuel oil on ships operating in Antarctic waters.

• Monday, March 29th 2010 - 18:30 UTC

  Solar power project to refine Chilean copper

  

  Codelco, Chile’s nationally-owned copper company and one of the world’s largest, announced last week a plan to outfit some of their mines with solar power over the next few years, a move expected to save millions of dollars in energy costs.

• Saturday, March 27th 2010 - 06:44 UTC

  Falklands join Earth Hour, the 125th country to participate in the global event

  

  The Falkland Islands are to participate Saturday in ‘Earth Hour’, a global awareness campaign on climate change organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature which spans thousands of cities around the world.