Ending eight months of silence, ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro published an article in Cuban state media Thursday criticizing US environmental policies. The article published in the Cuban Communist Party Daily Granma was the first attempt by Castro, who is recuperating from intestinal surgery, to comment on international issues since he was taken ill in July 2006.
A panel of experts from the University of Chile has suggested that the impact of climate change may not be so severe in Chile as in other parts of the world. They reason that the strong influence of the Pacific Ocean on the country may well help mitigate the effects of global warming.
The head of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, has applauded the findings of a new study that calls for a parallel push to fight climate change and also to decrease chemicals harming the ozone layer which shields the Earth from harmful ultraviolet light.
Argentina recovered this week its status of free from foot and mouth disease, FAM, with vaccination according to the country's Agro-food sanitary office, Senasa. Argentina suffered a limited FAM outbreak a year ago in the northern province of Corrientes.
Argentina confirmed 126 cases of the mosquito transmitted dengue disease with another 415 patients with symptoms but yet have to be definitively diagnosed. In southern Brazil an estimated 45.000 cases have been estimated.
President Bush, facing criticism he has ignored Latin America, said Monday the region's grinding poverty is a scandal that has caused some to question the value of democracy.
Meteorologists in the U.S. forecast Thursday an increase in hurricanes for the coming year. They lay the blame on La Niña †El Niño's sister” phenomenon - which produces a cooling effect on the surface water of the Pacific Ocean and can drastically alter weather patterns as far as Africa.
Paraguay's Ministry of Health head nurse died last Friday of hemorrhagic dengue an epidemics caused by a mosquito which is rapidly extending in the landlocked South American country and has 15.000 cases officially confirmed.
Faced with 100.000 cases of dengue infection which have also caused several deaths Paraguayan Congress declared this week a 60 days national emergency and voted funds to combat the Aedes agypty mosquito which transmits the disease.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Friday on the world's younger generation to take better care of Planet Earth in the face of global warming than his own.