Latin America

• Saturday, November 21st 2009 - 09:04 UTC

  Mercosur has top performing and worst performing presidents

  

  Two presidents from Mercosur countries figure among the leaders with the highest approval ratings in the Americas while the other two are at the opposite end.

• Saturday, November 21st 2009 - 05:50 UTC

  Latinamerican poor to reach 189 million (9 million more) because of recession

  

  The current global crisis will cause the number of poor people in Latin America to rise by nine million to 189 million this year, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) said in a report presented in Santiago de Chile.

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 09:55 UTC

  Brazil, Peru and Uruguay in “boom phase recovery”

  

  The Economic Climate Index (ECI) in Latin America, (developed in partnership between the German Ifo Institute and Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation) rose to 5.2 from 4.0 points between July and October 2009, exceeding for the first time since January 2008, the average of the last ten years (5.1 points).

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 09:46 UTC

  Chile’s presidential election: whoever wins, not much change

  Chile has been Latin America’s success story since the 1980’s, boasting rapid economic growth, successful integration into the world economy, solid democratic institutions, an effective state bureaucracy, and low levels of crruption. By most standards, the country is far better off than the rest of the region.

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 05:49 UTC

  Ten-year input for the Atlas of the Patagonian marine ecosystem

  

  The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and BirdLife International have released the first-ever comprehensive atlas of the Patagonian Sea -- a globally important but poorly understood South American marine ecosystem.

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 02:33 UTC

  Cuban greetings for 2010: tighten your belts, it’s bad and it’s getting worse

  

  Cuba is going through one of its cyclical “hard moments” but this time the lack of foreign currency is forcing draconian cuts in food subsidies, public utilities and other services taken for granted. The media repeatedly calls on the population to “tighten belts” because in 2010 restrictions are “for worse”.

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 02:17 UTC

  Brazil, Mexico and Chile out of recession beginning 2010, says OECD

  

  The Brazilian economy will experience a robust growth in 2010 and 2011, in the range of 4.5%, while Mexico will recover from deep recession beginning next year with a GDP expansion of 2.7% and 3.9% in 2011, according to the Organization for Economic and Development Cooperation, OECD.

• Friday, November 20th 2009 - 02:09 UTC

  Santiago airport expansion and fast train plans unveiled by Chile

  

  The Chilean government this week unveiled two major public transport initiatives aimed upgrading the nation’s transport infrastructure: a third runway and expanded terminal at the Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport (AMB) and a fast train service connecting the airport to the port city of Valparaiso in 2010.

• Thursday, November 19th 2009 - 06:44 UTC

  “Passion mousse” (containing Viagra) an instant success in gastronomy fair

  

  A dessert under the name of “Passion mousse made out of Viagra and Mburucuyá (Passion flower) fruit, the inspiration of four gastronomy students has been the great success at Bogotá, Colombia, national Gastronomy Fair which closed this week.

• Thursday, November 19th 2009 - 06:05 UTC

  Desalinization plant in north Chile to support iron mining

  

  CAP, one of Chile's largest mining companies, announced plans this week to construct a 250 million US dollars desalinization plant to provide water for its iron mining operations in Chile’s northern Atacama area (Region III).