Latin America

• Friday, August 26th 2011 - 02:55 UTC

  UN and Amnesty praise Peruvian law on consultation with indigenous peoples

  

  The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya and Amnesty International praised the approval of a law on consultation with indigenous peoples by the Congress of Peru and called on President Ollanta Humala for its quick promulgation and implementation.

• Friday, August 26th 2011 - 02:52 UTC

  Mining companies agree to pay Peru an extra billion dollars annually

  

  Peru has reached an agreement with mining companies that will raise the industry’s annual payments to the government to about one billion dollars, the government said on Thursday, fulfilling a campaign promise by President Ollanta Humala.

• Thursday, August 25th 2011 - 06:47 UTC

  Unasur agrees to greater economic coordination but remains divided on Libya

  

  Union of South American Nations, Unasur, Foreign Affairs ministers agreed Wednesday in Buenos Aires to increase economic coordination and send monitoring missions to regional elections but could not reach a common position on the Libyan situation.

• Thursday, August 25th 2011 - 06:42 UTC

  Thousands of tons of undistributed food had to be destroyed in Venezuela

  

  Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Neidy Rosal claimed before the country’s Prosecutors Office that an estimated 160.000 tons of food, in decomposing conditions, were being destroyed by the government’s Food Production and Distribution Office, Pvdal, in the state of Carabobo.

• Thursday, August 25th 2011 - 06:01 UTC

  World’s largest camera to survey 300 galaxies from an observatory in north Chile

  

  “The camera that we built is really very similar to the digital cameras you can buy at Walmart or wherever” Brenna Flaughter told US National Public Radio. “But this camera is big — its guts fill a shiny cylinder that's about the size of a car engine”.

• Wednesday, August 24th 2011 - 22:56 UTC

  Major earthquake rocks Amazon region of Peru, next to Brazil, felt in Lima

  

  A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck a remote Amazon region of Peru on Wednesday, shaking office buildings far away in the capital and in neighbouring Brazil although no injuries or damage were reported immediately.

• Wednesday, August 24th 2011 - 22:15 UTC

  Two-day strike takes off in Chile with Piñera increasingly debilitated

  

  The Chilean capital Santiago was witnessing another tumultuous day on Wednesday as protests started to sweep the nation’s capital and unions called for a two day nationwide shutdown to protest the educational system.

• Wednesday, August 24th 2011 - 07:26 UTC

  Impatient Raul Castro calls on Cubans “to clear our heads of ideological rigidity”

  

  Cuban President Raul Castro is increasingly impatient with the slow implementation of his economic reforms, which he publicly blames mostly on bureaucratic sloth and resistance to change.

• Tuesday, August 23rd 2011 - 00:36 UTC

  Unasur Foreign Affairs ministers meet in Buenos Aires to address global crisis

  

  The Union of South American Nations, (Unasur) Foreign Affairs ministers’ council will be holding on Wednesday an extraordinary summit in Buenos Aires to address several issues related to last week’s meeting of Unasur Finance ministers.

• Monday, August 22nd 2011 - 20:59 UTC

  Chavez supporters shave their heads in solidarity with the Venezuelan leader

  

  Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shaved their heads in solidarity with their leader's struggle against cancer. Barbers shaved off the hair of several men and at least one woman while the crowd swayed to a religious song on Sunday as hundreds prayed and sang at a televised event.