Daily Headlines: February 8, 2012

* Brazil: Carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro could be threatened by police officers that may reportedly join their comrades in Bahia state and go on an illegal strike.

* Mexico: A judge dropped some of the charges against two people accused of trying to smuggle members of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's family into Mexico.

* U.S.: A preliminary deal over state and federal redistricting in Texas might not reflect the state’s growing Latino population according to some local legislators.

* Latin America: Drought conditions in several Latin American countries could lead to a global spike in the prices of corn.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- NASDAQ, CBS News, Bloomberg, CBC News

Daily Headlines: February 1, 2012

* Peru: Authorities are trying to avoid the growing encroachment against natives like the Maschco-Piro tribe who reside in remote areas of the Amazon.

* Latin America: Drought conditions in have led to a reported drop in the planting of marijuana in Mexico and a decrease in the corn yields of several South American countries.

* Argentina: Canadian mining firm Osisko suspended a gold mining project in the La Rioja province after weeks of protests by locals and environmental groups.

* Dominican Republic: The World Trade Organization backed a claim by several Central American countries against import tariffs by the Dominican Republic.

Video Source – YouTube via ITN News

Online Sources- National Geographic, Fox News Latino, UPI, BBC News, Bloomberg

Brazil OKs GMO corn

The Brazilian government gave its stamp of approval to the selling of genetically modified corn (GMC). The country’s National Biosafety Council would permit the usage of two forms of GMC produced by Monsanto and Bayer called MON810 and LibertyLink, respectively.

The decision was met with resistance from environmental groups which claimed that the accepted GMCs are unsafe:

A Brazilian rural group, Via Campesina, reacted with fury to the announcement, saying it went against the advice of two governmental agencies: the health ministry's ANVISA health vigilance unit, and the environmental ministry's Ibama institute.

Via Campesina said in a statement that the companies behind the engineered corn had presented studies that were "completely inadequate and insufficient to guarantee the safety of these products in terms of human health."

It said it also feared the man-made seeds would contaminate natural crops, with unpredictable results for the environment.

Via Campesina may have a point; last week French officials banned MON810 after a watchdog group said it had “serious doubts” over the GMC's safety.

Image- SciDev.net

Sources- Bloomberg, AFP, Reuters, CNNMoney.com