Daily Headlines: December 7, 2011

* Brazil: According to Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research deforestation in the Amazon rainforest dropped to its lowest level since record-keeping began in 1988.

* Honduras: Luz Marina Paz became the seventeenth Honduran journalist killed since 2010 after she was gunned down and murdered yesterday.

* Venezuela: Plans for a government-backed housing initiative have slowed down due to labor unrest at Venezuela’s largest steelmaker.

* Chile: Colo Colo, one of Chile’s most popular soccer teams, was the fifth-most popular sports topic on Twitter in 2011 according to the social networking service.

Image Source – Flickr via CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources – MarketWatch, Fox News Latino, Twitter, CNN

"Futbol": Maradona wins in coaching debut

Diego Maradona’s first game at the helm of the argentine men’s national soccer team started on the right foot. Maxi Rodriguez’ 8th-minute tally was the lone goal of the match in Argentina’s victory over Scotland in an international friendly.

In other news briefs from the world of soccer:

• Mexico is on thin ice and is obligated to win under what will be harsh circumstances in Honduras. A loss and a blowout win by Jamaica over Canada could force Mexico to embarrassingly miss qualifying for the World Cup for the fist time since 1990.
• Over a year ago, we wrote about soccer club Universidad de Chile who had fallen on hard times despite being one of the country’s most popular teams. Since then, the team’s fortunes have slowly changed and earlier this week the team raised nearly $15 million via an initial public offering. “La U” became the county’s second team to be on the Santiago exchange behind Colo Colo (a.k.a. Maegan’s favorite club!)
• Will Brazilian striker Ronaldo retire? The rumors that he will hang up his cleats intensified today after he rejected offers to play for mid-level Italian club Siena.
• Lastly, it’s never fun when the “beautiful game” becomes marred by violence yet that’s precisely what occurred in Uruguay on Sunday as fans of Danubio and Nacional engaged in fisticuffs:

Sources- The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, Vivirlatino, YouTube, BBC News, Guardian UK, Los Angles Times, Reuters, FOX Sports