Daily Headlines: October 15, 2012

* Brazil: Over 1000 police raided a pair of favelas in Rio de Janeiro that are reportedly notorious for crime and drug-related violence.
 
* Haiti: Several hundred protesters marched in Port-au-Prince and called on President Michel Martelly to resign.
 
* Cuba: The Ladies in White dissident group marched in Havana yesterday on the one-year anniversary of the death of former leader Laura Pollan.

* U.S.: The U.S. Treasury Department officially designated the El Salvador-based MS-13 street gang as a “transnational criminal organization.”

Video Source – YouTube via AFP

Online Sources- IOL news, LAHT, The Telegraph, Christian Science Monitor

Daily Headlines: December 15, 2011

* Chile: Student protest leader Camila Vallejo was named by a nationwide poll as Chile’s Person of the Year.

* Brazil: Federal prosecutors in Brazil are seeking the suspension of operations of Transocean and Chevron as well as $10.6 billion in environmental and social damages.

* Cuba: The National Endowment for Democracy gave their annual humanitarian award to the late Cuban dissident Laura Pollan.

* Colombia: According to the Vatican Radio, Pope Benedict XVI called for the freeing of all the hostages held against their will by Colombian guerillas.

Image Source – Flickr via gpoo

Online Sources – Santiago Times, MSNBC, UPI, Bloomberg