Daily Headlines: March 3, 2016

* El Salvador: New police data released yesterday showed a whopping 117% jump in the homicide rate for January and February 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.
 
* Brazil: Vale and BHP Billiton, the co-owners of a Brazilian dam that collapsed last year and killed nineteen people, agreed to pay approximately $1.5 billion in damages.

* Venezuela: Venezuela’s opposition parties will formally present a plan seeking the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro prior to the end of his term in 2019.

* Peru: Peru might lose at least $6 million per day in export revenue due to heavy rain, flooding and extreme heat from the El Niño weather phenomena.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English (Video uploaded on November 2015).
 
Online Sources – BBC News, NBC News, Reuters, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: December 28, 2015 (Updated)

* South America: The El Niño weather phenomenon has been blamed for massive flooding in Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina as well as an elevated alert of forest fires in Colombia.

* Central America: Pope Francis called on Central American leaders to bring about a “timely solution to (the) humanitarian drama” of an estimated 5000 Cuban migrants stranded in Costa Rica.

Update: The SICA bloc of Central American states agreed to start a pilot program next month to help the stranded migrants travel legally northward to Mexico. (Link in Spanish).

* Haiti: The United Nations Security Council pushed Haitian officials to quickly reschedule a presidential runoff that was supposed to take place yesterday but has been indefinitely postponed.

* Chile: The Chilean government proposed eliminating a law enacted under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet that provides the military with 10% of the country’s yearly copper exports.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources including Update – UPI, NDTV, The Tico Times, teleSUR English, Jamaica Observe, Agencia EFE

Daily Headlines: August 1, 2014

* Uruguay: A group of former Philip Morris workers in Uruguay have become activists supporting the country’s strict anti-tobacco measures.

* Dominican Republic: A former senior official of the Dominican Republic’s counternarcotics agency pled guilty to charges that he collaborated with drug traffickers.

* Brazil: The higher than forecast growth of the U.S. economy reportedly led to a 1.1% drop in the value of Brazil’s currency on Wednesday.

* Guatemala: An estimated 40,000 families have been affected by a drought caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon and that has also led to damages to corn crops.

Video Source – YouTube user Latest news

Online Sources – LAHT; Bloomberg; Reuters; Rappler

Daily Headlines: May 9, 2012

* Venezuela: In the latest troubles to hit the Venezuela prison system, “heavy gunfire” was reported yesterday at a facility where inmates began rioting eleven days ago.

* Haiti: Will a push to “rebrand” Haiti as a major tourist destination fail or succeed?

* Peru: Scientists believe that a warming of coastal waters may have led to the recent deaths of over 4000 sea birds that have washed up on Peruvian beaches.

* Uruguay: According to the latest FIFA monthly rankings Uruguay continues as Latin America’s highest-ranked team and third in the world.

Video Source – YouTube via YoSoiTV (Amateur footage allegedly showing gunfire breaking out on Tuesday in the La Planta prison in Caracas)

Online Sources- TSN, Miami Herald, The Guardian, BBC News

World Watch: Advancing

* Libya: While rebels continue to make leeway in Tripoli the U.S. proposed that the U.N. Security Council unfreeze $1.5 billion in Libyan assets for humanitarian purposes.

* Sudan: The Sudanese army was accused of killing anti-government opponents after satellite images revealed freshly dug mass graves near the border with South Sudan.

* U.S.: Apple cofounder Steve Jobs resigned from his post as company CEO after claiming that he “could no longer meet my duties and expectations.”

* World: Researchers concluded that the climate changes such as those caused by El Niño could be a factor in civil conflicts.

Image – Hamza Turkia/XinHua/Xinhua Press/Corbis via The Guardian (“Rebels celebrate in Shuhada Square as they capture Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli. Other rebel fighters are advancing to (Gaddafi's hometown of) Sirte.”)
Online Sources- MSNBC, The Telegraph, The Independent, BBC News, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: July 23, 2009

* Mexico: Police arrested four men accused of belonging to a drug gang behind the torture and murders of twelve policemen in Michoacan.

* Puerto Rico: Will Congress soon vote on a proposal designed to give Puerto Ricans a chance to decide the island’s political status?

* Brazil: A report by UNICEF found that almost half of teen deaths in Brazil are due to murder.

* Peru: Local meteorologists predict that the recurring weather phenomena known as “El Niño” could hit Peru as early as this year.

Image- AP (“Police officers escort Jose Alberto Lopez, an alleged coordinator for the Mexican drug cartel known as "La Familia," during his presentation to the media in Mexico City, Wednesday, July 22, 2009.”)
Online Sources- Xinhua, BBC News, AP, Living in Peru