Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 25 2006 (IPS) – Officials in the Argentine government have thrown their support behind local residents and environmentalists in the western province of San Juan who are opposed to a mega-gold mining project in the Andes Mountains along the border with Chile due to the environmental risks it poses.
Because of that support, progress on the project has been temporarily suspended. President Néstor Kirchner himself traveled to San Juan this month, where he called for the continued development of the mining industry, but with respect for the environment..

His statement heartened local residents and farmers in the area, who had already voiced their concerns in a more than two-hour meeting with the secretary of the environment and sustainab…

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 28 2006 (IPS) – A popular soap opera that portrays a mother in search of a school that will accept her daughter as just another student has sparked a public debate in Brazil on whether or not children with Down s syndrome should be enrolled in standard schools.
In Pages of Life , a prime time show on the Globo network, aired Monday to Saturday at 9 pm, Helena played by renowned actress Regina Duarte first has to fight for her adopted daughter not to be treated as special in an overly condescending way that does not allow her to test her limits, at her first school.

Then she faces rejection from other reputable schools, where head teachers claim they lack the expertise to accept disabled pupils.

Later, Helena meets another mother…

Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Jan 9 2007 (IPS) – The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, where the ozone thins out every southern hemisphere springtime, is recovering for the time being, but all regions in Chile will receive extremely high levels of ultraviolet radiation this month.
The ozone layer is found all round the earth at an altitude of about 15 to 30 kilometres, and protects living things from the sun s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays.

Every year, between September and November, the ozone layer thins out in a large area that includes the southern parts of Argentina and Chile, where UV radiation increases by 25 percent.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), th…