Daily Headlines: April 21, 2014

* Peru: In the latest case of the growing international problem that is counterfeit drugs, researchers found that 28% of contraceptive medicine in Peru is either counterfeit or ineffective.

* Venezuela: Argentine-born Pope Francis used his Easter homily to call for the “reconciliation and fraternal accord” in Venezuela, a country torn by political unrest though tempers have calmed somewhat after talks between the government and opposition. 
 
* Bolivia: President Evo Morales urged Bolivian peasants and impoverished residents to teach children how to be fluent in foreign languages so they can apply for scholarships to study abroad.
  
* Colombia: A new report found that at least thirty-four Colombian indigenous groups are going through a "humanitarian crisis" and this could lead to their extinction.
 
Video Source– YouTube user VOAvideo (“The World Health Organization estimates that 25 percent of medicines sold in poor countries are counterfeit. Monitoring by the World Bank and others suggests the overall global trade in fake and substandard drugs is now more than 30 billion dollars per year”.)

Online Sources – Vox; The Telegraph; The Guardian; LAHT; Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: October 1, 2010

* Peru: Paleontologists discovered the 36-million-year-old fossil of a “giant penguin” that had gray and reddish brown feathers and was over five feet tall.

* Latin America: Over 600 people in thirteen South American countries were arrested for counterfeiting products according to Interpol.

* Venezuela: At least sixteen people were killed after a four-day riot took place in a northern Venezuelan prison.

* Mexico: Farmers in the world’s fourth-largest producer of corn are expected to grow a record 24.9 million tons of the vegetable this year.

Image – BBC News
Online Sources- CNN, LAHT, MSNBC, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: September 14, 2009

* Latin America: A London-based think tank credited Mexico and Argentina as the world's top nations that are making the “global economy more climate friendly", based on an index of "carbon competitiveness”.

* Guatemala: Nine people were reportedly arrested for the May murder of a lawyer who claimed before he died that President Alvaro Colom was plotting his death.

* Peru: “A flood of high-quality counterfeit U.S. money from Peru is perplexing federal authorities,” according to this Los Angeles Times article published over the weekend.

* Brazil: Thousands are homeless and at least two are dead in southern Brazil as a result of heavy rains and flooding.

Image- Guardian UK (“A combination photograph shows an image from 1928 (top) of the Upsala glacier in Patagonia, Argentina, contrasted with a 2004 photograph (bottom) of the same view. The pictures illustrate the extent to which climate change has caused the ice to melt away this century.”)
Online Sources- AP, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, CNN