Latin America

• Wednesday, October 5th 2011 - 09:29 UTC

  Piñera escalates conflict: proposes jailing those involved in occupying schools

  

  Student leaders, the opposition and several judges expressed outrage this week after Chilean President Sebastián Piñera proposed on Sunday to reform the Penal Code to impose harsher punishments on those involved in the occupation of schools and universities, newspaper La Tercera reported.

• Wednesday, October 5th 2011 - 09:23 UTC

  Abbas takes off on diplomatic charm offensive in support of Palestinian state

  

  Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas flew to Europe on Tuesday to kick off a week-long tour which will also take him to Latin America to shore up support for his UN membership bid.

• Wednesday, October 5th 2011 - 09:08 UTC

  Chavez says he’s fine but photos and television give a different picture

  

  Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez seems to be fully active recovering the initiative impetus of his pre-chemotherapy treatment. On Monday he was on national television in a meeting with a business delegation from Byelorussia. Last Saturday he was seen giving away home appliances and in the evening chairing a cabinet meeting.

• Wednesday, October 5th 2011 - 08:44 UTC

  Chilean Army invests 15.8m dollars in upgrading US made Howitzers

  

  A Chilean plan for modernizing and upgrading its defense forces is under way with one of the first major contracts going to BAE Systems for the supply and refurbishment of 12 U.S.-made M109A5 howitzers. The 15.8 million dollars contract has been implemented for the Chilean Government through a US foreign military sales contract.

• Wednesday, October 5th 2011 - 08:08 UTC

  Latam’s largest airline merger project appeals several anti-trust conditions

  

  Chile's LAN Airlines and Brazilian carrier TAM have appealed to Chile's top court some of the conditions imposed on their planned merger as the companies push ahead to create one of the world's biggest airlines.

• Tuesday, October 4th 2011 - 06:59 UTC

  Latin America has diminished poverty indexes but deep inequality gaps remain

  

  Latin America has experienced significant advances in the reduction of poverty but has barely improved the deep social inequalities that limit its development according to Heraldo Muñoz, head of the regional UN Program for Development.

• Monday, October 3rd 2011 - 22:08 UTC

  Aerolíneas Argentinas among the top short list of money loosing air carriers

  

  Aerolíneas Argentinas is estimated to have lost in the last twelve months 486 million dollars which puts her among the air carriers with greatest losses in the world. Only Air India, also government managed, but with 30.000 staff (three times her Argentine counterpart) dilapidated 1.2 billion dollars and Kuwait Airways, 564 million dollars

• Monday, October 3rd 2011 - 22:05 UTC

  Half a million sheep dead in Patagonia because of the volcanic ash

  

  Half a million sheep have already died in Argentine Patagonia as a result of the eruption of the Chilean volcano Puyehe, which has covered most fields in the province of Chubut with a film made of a mix of mineral ash.

• Monday, October 3rd 2011 - 21:13 UTC

  “Chavez preaches Socialism but spends like a rich capitalist”, Venezuela Transparency

  

  One morning October last year two agents from the Venezuelan presidency cabinet left on a special mission from the Miraflores Palace (seat of the Executive). They headed a few blocks away to the Central Bank to pick up five million dollars cash, expenses-money for the coming international tour of President Chavez to Moscow, Kiev, Teheran, Damascus and Tripoli.

• Monday, October 3rd 2011 - 07:22 UTC

  Rousseff and Blatter to discuss disputes regarding organization of 2014 World Cup

  

  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff plans to meet the president of soccer's world governing body on Monday to resolve a legal dispute over the 2014 World Cup, the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported.