Latin America

• Thursday, January 28th 2010 - 23:52 UTC

  Tourism Law Aims To Professionalize Chile’s Industry

  

  A new tourism law passed by the Chilean Congress earlier this month is set to change the face of Chile’s tourist industry by setting standards for operators and guides.

• Thursday, January 28th 2010 - 14:15 UTC

  Honduras Lobo moving “in the right direction”, but no US aid restoration yet

  

  Newly-inaugurated Honduran President Porfirio Lobo is taking his country “in the right direction,” but the United States has not decided whether to restore aid to Honduras, said Arturo Valenzuela, US assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs.

• Thursday, January 28th 2010 - 14:09 UTC

  NASA surveillance flights to anticipate quakes in Haiti

  

  US space agency NASA will send surveillance flights over Haiti and the Dominican Republic to look for signs that more earthquakes may hit the area after a giant quake that killed as many as 200,000 people two weeks ago.

• Thursday, January 28th 2010 - 06:30 UTC

  Chile completes modernization of air power with 44 F16s

  

  Chilean Defence minister Francisco Vidal and Air Force Commander General Ricardo Ortega announced this week that Chile had completed the renovation of its air power with the purchase of 18 F-16s from Holland, 12 Brazilian Super Tucano for training purposes, three KC 135 transport aircrafts and 12 Bell 412 helicopters.

• Thursday, January 28th 2010 - 05:52 UTC

  Santiago de Chile pollution has doubled in eight years

  

  A new study by Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH) shows fine particulate matter from construction and traffic has more than doubled in the Santiago metropolitan region over the past eight years.

• Thursday, January 28th 2010 - 05:41 UTC

  “Super Charlie”, 7 year-old from London collects £ 200.000 for Haiti

  

  Seven-year-old Charlie Simpson, from west London, met on Wednesday British Prime Minister's wife at 10 Downing Street after raising more than £200,000 for earthquake victims in Haiti.

• Wednesday, January 27th 2010 - 15:10 UTC

  Another top official from the Chavez administration resigns

  

  Venezuela’s Central Bank Chairman, Eugenio Vasquez Orellana, resigned Tuesday citing health problems, but the real motive seems to have been differences with some cabinet ministers from the government of Hugo Chavez.

• Wednesday, January 27th 2010 - 15:06 UTC

  Venezuelan students protest against Chavez media: two dead

  

  College students opposed to Venezuela’s populist government protested on Tuesday outside the headquarters of state-run VTV television against the network’s “violent discourse.”

• Wednesday, January 27th 2010 - 15:00 UTC

  Rains and mudslides strand 1.900 tourists in Machu Picchu

  

  Flooding and mudslides near Peru's Machu Picchu archaeological citadel have killed at least seven people and stranded 1900 tourists. An operation to airlift the foreigners out of the south-eastern disaster zone was suspended because of heavy rain after just 75 were flown out by helicopter.

• Wednesday, January 27th 2010 - 14:51 UTC

  New chapter for Honduras: Lobo takes office, Zelaya off to Dominican Republic

  

  Honduras president elect Porfirio Lobo takes office on Wednesday the same day deposed Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya finally leave the Brazilian embassy where he has been holed up for more than four months.