Daily Headlines: October 9, 2015

* South America: World Cup qualifiers in South America began yesterday with noteworthy matches including Ecuador shocking Argentina in Buenos Aires and Copa America titleholders Chile beating Brazil.

* Brazil: Nine police officers allegedly avenging the shooting of an off-duty cop were arrested and charged with killing nineteen people on August 13th near Sao Paulo.

* Mexico: Mayor Enrique Serrano of Ciudad Júarez has called on a boycott of the hit film Sicario since it “speaks badly of the city.”

* Venezuela: Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez accused the Guyanese government of “misleading the international community” over a heated territorial dispute between the neighboring countries.

YouTube Source – Futbolpasionmundial3 (Patricio Javier Diaz of La Red Ecuador radio provided emotional play-by-play of Ecuador’s two goals in their upset over Argentina on Thursday).
 
Online Sources – ESPN FC, The Guardian, BBC News, Xinhua

Daily Headlines: October 7, 2015

* Latin America: A record 693 people in Brazil have died in 2015 due to dengue, while fatalities related to the disease have increased by 78% so far this year in the Dominican Republic.

* Cuba: U.S. commerce secretary Penny Pritzker traveled to Cuba as part of the effort to normalize economic relations between the two countries.

* Brazil: Organizers of next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro plan to cut about 10% in operating costs for the competition though spending for “building venues, subway lines and highways to help stage the games” will be untouched.

* Colombia: Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre has called for a preliminary investigation into former president turned senator Alvaro Uribe’s possible role in a 1997 massacre.

YouTube Source – AFP (Video uploaded on August 2014).

Online Sources – Yahoo News, Fox News Latino, Times of India, ABC News, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: October 6, 2015

* Latin America: Representatives of the Peruvian, Chilean and Mexican governments expressed their satisfaction over the signing yesterday of the twelve-nation Trans Pacific Partnership free trade pact.

* El Salvador: The number of massacres in El Salvador has spiked so far this year though its unknown if it’s related to rampant gang violence.

* Bolivia: Bolivian authorities reached an agreement with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to ease the granting of special visas to Syrian refugees.

* Chile: Officials in Chile announced the creation of the largest marine reserve in the Americas that covers 115,000 square miles around the Desventuradas Islands.

YouTube Source – CNN

Online Sources – InSight Crime, The Financial Times, National Geographic, Xinhua

Daily Headlines: October 5, 2015

* Brazil: The Supreme Court gave police permission to question ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as a witness regarding a major bribery scandal at Petrobras that has implicated members of the Brazil’s political and business elite.

* Colombia: In a span of less than a week, Colombian law enforcement killed two of the country's most dangerous drug capos known by the aliases of Pijarvey and Megateo.

* Nicaragua: Could delays arise in the construction of a new interoceanic canal after one of the project's main investors, Chinese telecom magnate Wang Jing, lost 85% of his assets so far this year?

* Argentina: Several candidates assailed poll frontrunner and ruling party candidate Daniel Scioli for skipping out on Argentina’s first-ever televised presidential debate.

YouTube Source – AFP (Video uploaded on August 2015).

Online Sources – Fox News Latino, Colombia Reports, The Globe and Mail, Bloomberg, Reuters