Health & Science

• Monday, February 12th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile faces “aging population” challenge

  Chile's birth rate has dropped substantially from 3.5% in 1962 to just 1.6% today. And with the country's “baby boom” generation (1957—1962) turning grey, Chile could face a future crisis of social care and pension payments.

• Monday, February 12th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Several cases of dengue fever on Easter Island

  

  Three new cases of Dengue Fever (DF) were reported last weekend on Easter Island, a Chilean outpost in the South Pacific. Two men and one woman, both native islanders, were found to be infected with the disease.

• Sunday, February 11th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  British tycoon offers price $ 25 million to clean up atmosphere

  

  As if offering flights to space and recently hosting his own reality show were not enough to get British billionaire Sir Richard Branson the publicity he so richly affords, this week he has gone over the heads of environmental leaders everywhere to offer a US$ 25 million prize for the first scientist who can invent an economically viable way to clean carbon from Earth's atmosphere.

• Saturday, February 10th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  UK Farmers urge ban on poultry imports

  

  Farmers are calling for a ban on raw imported poultry meat from countries infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus until the cause of the UK outbreak has been established.

• Wednesday, February 7th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Weather anomalies strike the Andean region

  

  A heat wave is causing a string of forest fires in Colombia, in the Andes glaciers are melting, in Bolivia rainfall is double the average and in the whole Andean region climatic anomalies are forcing drastic measures to contain further damage.

• Wednesday, February 7th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Dengue alert issued in S America

  

  A health alert has been declared in Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia after an outbreak of dengue fever.

• Thursday, February 1st 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Global warming 'very likely' man-made

  

  The world's leading climate scientists, in their most powerful language ever used on the issue, said global warming is “very likely” man-made, according to a new report obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

• Tuesday, January 30th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Southern Chile's tremors traced to submarine fissure

  

  The weeks' long tremors that have residents of Chilean Patagonia fearsome of a major earthquake can be traced to a submarine fissure and not the tectonic plaques, according to a group of scientists working in the area.

• Sunday, January 28th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Case of foot and mouth disease confirmed in Bolivia

  A case of foot and mouth disease, FAM, was confirmed this week in the east of Bolivia, the first in the country in the last three years and a half. Bolivia has since banned all exports of beef to the Andean countries, reports the press in La Paz.

• Sunday, January 28th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Seism “psychosis” as earth trembles in southern Chile

  

  Viviana Betancour governor of Chile's Southern Region of Aysen, which is living in a state of almost panic because of several days persistent telluric trembling, called on residents to be calm and trust that the best possible technical assistance is already working in the area.