Some 1,500 people were evacuated late Friday as the Chaiten volcano in southern Chile erupted, hurling hot rocks and belching clouds of ash into the sky. The thick clouds of ash that covered the region also spread to towns in the southern Argentine province of Chubut, where authorities closed schools and issued warnings due to low visibility on some roads. Yet despite the fireworks at the volcano, located some 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) south of Santiago, there were no reports of casualties or damage, Chile's Office of National Emergencies reported.

European gas oil prices set a new high above $1,000 a tonne on Tuesday, boosted by a fire in a key European refinery last week and unexpectedly strong demand. Power blackouts in South Africa, Chile and China have forced many companies to run diesel generators to offset electricity supply interruptions, while a harsh winter in south-east Asia has boosted heating oil demand. ICE April gas oil futures hit a record $1,017 a tonne on Tuesday, up 1.3 per cent on the day and 21.2 per cent since the start of the year.

Not so long ago, the idea that Latin American companies

Faced by mounting protests and a 110-day-long hunger strike by a jailed indigenous rights activist, Chile's government has agreed to create a high commission for the rights of the indigenous

>> More than 100,000 tonnes of rotting garbage are lying on the roadsides of the southern Italian city of Naples, after garbage trucks stopped operating since the last week of December 2007 because

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>> Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary The 11th Hour opened in theatres on August 17. The film starts with a bleak outlook on issues like global warming. Much of the roughly 90-minute movie is,

Chilean scientists recently identified fossils of whales believed to have died around five million years ago. The fossils were discovered a month back by some teenagers while on a field trip near Los