BBC – Chile’s new President, Sebastian Pinera, has said it will cost at least $30bn (£20bn) to rebuild the country after January’s earthquake. Speaking on his first full day in office, he said loans and budgetary savings would be used to rebuild infrastructure, homes and industry. Other nations would be asked to help, Mr Pinera told reporters in Santiago. Read article
Reuters – The ground shook and buildings swayed as billionaire Sebastian Pinera took over as Chile’s president on Thursday, tasked with rebuilding after a massive earthquake killed hundreds just 12 days ago. A series of strong aftershocks rattled central Chile minutes before conservative Pinera was sworn in at Congress in the port city of Valparaiso, as Latin American presidents and other dignitaries looked nervously at the ceiling. Read article
BBC – US President Barack Obama has warned of a second disaster in Haiti, saying people should be under no illusion that the crisis there is over. Mr Obama said the situation in Haiti remained “dire” almost two months after the earthquake struck. He was speaking after talks with Haitian President Rene Preval in Washington. Read article
BBC – The Brazilian government has announced trade sanctions against a variety of American goods in retaliation for illegal US subsidies to cotton farmers. The World Trade Organization (WTO) approved the sanctions in a rare move. Brazil published a list of 100 US goods that would be subject to import tariffs in 30 days, unless the two governments reached a last-minute accord. It said it regretted the sanctions, but that eight years of litigation had failed to produce a result. Read article
CNBC – The devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti threw the country into the international spotlight, and simultaneously highlighted its desperate need for help, even before the disaster. In the weeks and months after the quake, some have begun to question whether the event opens new opportunities for restructuring of Haiti’s government and economy, literally from the ground up. But what sort of role should the US or other international organizations play in Haiti? Among the spectrum of international responses—from indirect aid and development programs to a Puerto Rico-style annexation—the best answer is bound to lie somewhere in between. Read article
Ed – Echos of the Sudetenland 1938? The only difference being Haiti has oil.
BBC – Brazil will not bow to pressure from the US to support further sanctions against Iran over its nuclear work, the country’s foreign minister has said. Celso Amorim told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Brazil wanted to see further negotiations on the issue before it would support sanctions. Read article
Times Online – Argentina was celebrating a diplomatic coup yesterday in its attempt to force Britain to accept talks on the future of the Falkland Islands, after a two-hour meeting in Buenos Aires between Hillary Clinton and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Responding to a request from Mrs Kirchner for “friendly mediation” between Britain and Argentina, Mrs Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said she agreed that talks were a sensible way forward and offered “to encourage both countries to sit down”. Read article
Daily Telegraph – Senior members of the Obama administration approved the illegal removal of 12 Haitian children from a Port-au-Prince orphanage to Pennsylvania last month even though the children were not up for adoption in the US and some were not orphans. Read Article
Science Daily — Scientists broadly agree that global warming may threaten the survival of many plant and animal species; but global warming did not kill the Monteverde golden toad, an often cited example of climate-triggered extinction, says a new study. The toad vanished from Costa Rica’s Pacific coastal-mountain cloud forest in the late 1980s, the apparent victim of a pathogen outbreak that has wiped out dozens of other amphibians in the Americas. Read Article
BBC – Two million people have been affected by the massive earthquake that struck central Chile on Saturday, President Michelle Bachelet has said. In a TV address, she said the forces of nature were testing the nation. So far at least 300 people have been confirmed killed in the earthquake that struck in the early hours of Saturday. The 8.8 quake – one of the biggest ever – triggered a tsunami that has been sweeping across the Pacific, although waves were not as high as predicted. Read article
Washington Post – Photo’s by Reuters. Commentary with each photo.
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Washington Post – After a morning of rushed evacuations, the tsunami that reached Hawaii midday Saturday was smaller than officials had feared, causing no reported damage and never rising more than about three feet above sea levels, authorities said. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center lifted its warning for Hawaii about two hours after the series of waves hit Hawaiian shores, and later for most of the rest of the Pacific. Read Article
Washington Post – Thousands of people are going online to share information about the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck central Chile early this morning. Note that much of it is in Spanish, but can be converted to English through Google’s translation tool. Read more
Washington Post — Wide swaths of the south Pacific, Asia and Australia braced for a tsunami after a devastating earthquake hit the coast of Chile on Saturday. Officials in Japan and Australia warned a tsunami from the earthquake was likely to hit Asian shorelines within 24 hours. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a tsunami caution for areas across the region. Read article
Washington Post — A devastating earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. A tsunami set off by the magnitude-8.8 quake threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean – roughly a quarter of the globe. President-elect Sebastian Pinera said more than 120 people died, but the death toll was rising quickly. Read article
BBC – Several Cuban dissidents say they will refuse food in protest at the death earlier this week of a jailed government opponent. Opposition group the Cuban Commission for Human Rights said four jailed dissidents would reject solid food. Another anti-government activist, who is not in jail, has said he is also giving up food and drink. Orlando Zapata Tamayo died on Tuesday in a hospital in the capital Havana after a hunger strike of 85 days. His death triggered international protests and Cuban President Raul Castro issued an expression of regret. Read Article
BBC – A massive earthquake of 8.3 magnitude has struck close to the city of Concepcion in Chile. The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 0634 GMT on Saturday at a depth of 59.4km (36.9 miles). Concepcion is the second largest city in the country, about 450km south of Santiago. There is no word yet on any casualties. Read Article
The diplomatic row over the Falkland Islands deepened dramatically after Argentina announced that it would take its protests over British oil exploration to the United Nations today. At the Rio Group summit in Mexico yesterday, Buenos Aires won unprecedented support from other Latin American states for its demand that the UK stop drilling in waters near the islands. Read article
BBC – Gunmen have killed 13 people in the southern Oaxaca state, police say. Officials say hooded men travelling in several cars stormed a ranch killing the owner and his three sons as well as four other people. The Mexican authorities say the gunmen then killed five local police officers who tried to fight back. Read article
Argentina has formally asked United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to bring the UK into talks over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said he had asked Mr Ban to help stop “further unilateral acts” by the UK. Read article
BBC – Latin American and Caribbean nations have agreed to set up a new regional body without the US and Canada. The new bloc would be an alternative to the Organisation of American States (OAS), the main forum for regional affairs in the past 50 years. Read article
AFP – Argentina was anticipating Monday to broaden regional support in its escalating row with Britain over the disputed Falkland Islands after winning immediate backing from Venezuela and Nicaragua. After losing a short but bloody war over the south Atlantic islands with Britain in 1982, Argentina is furious that the British are about to begin oil drilling operations in the potentially rich seabed around the archipelago. Read article
BBC – A British rig is due to begin drilling for oil in the territorial waters of the Falkland Islands, despite strong opposition from Argentina. The platform has been towed to a point 100km (62 miles) north of the islands in the South Atlantic. Argentina says the move violates its sovereignty and has imposed shipping restrictions around the islands. Read article
BBC – When was the last time you had a “rainforest picnic”? Or even, perhaps, an “all-day Amazon breakfast”? Next time you are in a supermarket picking up a chicken sandwich for lunch, or fancy tucking in to a hearty breakfast of eggs, sausage and bacon before setting off for work, spare a thought for the Amazon. A new report by Forest Footprint Disclosure reveals for the first time how global business is driving rainforests to destruction in order to provide things for you and me to eat. But it does also reveal what companies are doing to try to lighten their forest footprint. Sadly, however, the answer is: not much, at least not yet. Consumers “eat” rainforests each day – in the form of beef-burgers, bacon and beauty products – but without knowing it. Read Article
Latin American Herald Tribune -The species of fish and shellfish most consumed in Mexico “are at risk” due to overfishing, according to Greenpeace, which presented Tuesday a list of the ones that are most endangered. Red snapper, shrimp, sardines, sharks, rays, tuna and groupers from the Gulf of Mexico, salmon from the Atlantic and grey mullet are all on the Red List prepared by the environmental organization. “We Mexicans want to continue eating fish and shellfish, and we should not wait for their populations to be exhausted,” Alejandro Olivera, coordinator of the oceans-and-coasts campaign for Greenpeace Mexico, said in a communique. He blamed the National Fisheries Commission, or Conapesca, for the overfishing, since the current fishing policy has put “many” populations at risk and has impoverished the fishing sector by having more and more people working in it while undersea resources are disappearing. Read Article
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