Bolivia suffering one of its worst dengue epidemics in decades reported 19 deaths of the more extreme variant haemorrhagic and 30.000 cases of the mild classic disease transmitted by mosquito bites.
According to a report by the United Nations Development Programme, suicides and accidents are the cause of the greatest number of violent deaths in Uruguay. Homicides came in third place.
Argentine authorities have admitted that at least fifty cases of mosquito transmitted dengue have been reported in the northwest of the country, neighbouring with Bolivia, one of which confirmed haemorrhagic.
British Primer Minister Gordon Brown has issued a warning to banks in Britain and around the world that they must end risky speculation and resume their traditional role as stewards of people's money.
Chile has evacuated more than 150 people who had returned to the southern town of Chaiten after it was destroyed by a volcanic eruption last year.
By Peter Lowy - A recent trip to Uruguay enabled me, along with another journalist, to visit The Refuge, a ranch belonging to Roberto Canessa, a member of a rugby team that in 1972 survived a crash in the freezing Andes for more than two months, in part, by resorting to cannibalism. What started as a leisurely tour of the ranch, ended late that night with a seaside dinner, after assisting with emergency horse surgery!
New releases from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) this week show two sides of the human effect on climate change, with a report revealing hastened degradation of the earth's largest forest zone and the Danish city of Copenhagen becoming the 100th member of a climate-friendly network.
The United Kingdom Health Protection Agency has confirmed the first case of the human form of mad cow disease in a patient with haemophilia. A post-mortem showed the man, who was over 70 and had received plasma products before rules were introduced to limit contagion, died infected. However he died of other causes and had not shown any symptoms, the HPA said.
The number of deaths from hemorrhagic dengue so far this year in Bolivia has increased to 13, the government reported while admitting that an outbreak of malaria has been detected in three provinces.
Investing one-third of the roughly 2.5 trillion US dollars planned stimulus funds in greening the global economy will give a large boost to efforts to lift the world out of recession, according to a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released Monday.