The project requires a minimum commitment of 6 months (early August 2010 to at least late January 2011). The project can arrange a visa for up to 12 months if you would like to volunteer for a full year in the Galapagos Islands. The application deadline is Friday 30 April 2010.

Volunteers receive free housing and reimbursement of food expenses.

From these slender elements, the Mexican novelist Juan Rulfo weaves a story that relentlessly draws the reader in, and says more about life as well as death in rural Mexico than many longer and more elaborate works. Rulfo is a story-teller who is well aware that poetry comes from knowing what to leave out as much as what to leave in.

The narrative of Pedro Paramo – the name of the protagonist’s father – consists of some 60 fragments. These fragments are the voices of the ghosts still present in the village of Comala, who between them gradually build up the jigsaw of his father’s life and death. Pedro Paramo, we discover, was the local landowner, who accumulated his lands and power by treachery or by brutally arranged marriages, until at last he fell for a woman he found it impossible to win, as she retreated first into madness and then – inevitably in this novel – death.

The 100 or so pages of the novel are held together not only by the gradually unfolding story, but by repeated images and expressions that broaden out the impact of the local events and endow them with a more general resonance. The voices of the former inhabitants of Comala give a stark impression of life as something suffered rather than created.

Pedro Paramo was originally published in Mexico in 1955. Despite the fact that Rulfo only wrote this novel and the short stories of The Burning Plain, he has been universally acknowledged as one of the masters of recent Mexican writing, both because of the sobriety and resonant understatement that he consistently achieves, and because of the way he uses these gifts to capture the emptiness and despair of rural Mexico. This is a Mexico which has been abandoned to suffering for centuries, but which still retains its capacity to burst into shocking life.

Pedro Paramo is a classic in the truest sense. It is a book that has profoundly influenced the making of literature, and continues to resonate in other books.

But as Bush Versus Chávez reveals, Venezuela’s revolutionary process has drawn more than simply the ire of Washington. It has precipitated an ongoing campaign to contain and cripple the democratically elected government of Latin America’s leading oil power. Bush Versus Chávez details how millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are used to fund groups – such as the National Endowment for Democracy, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Office for Transition – with the express purpose to support counter-revolutionary groups in Venezuela. It describes how Washington is attempting to impose endless sanctions, justified by fabricated evidence, to cause economic distress. And it illuminates the build-up of U.S. military troops, operations, and exercises in the Caribbean, that specifically threaten the Venezuelan people and government. Bush Versus Chávez exposes the imperialist machinations of Washington as it tries to “subvert a socialist revolution for the twenty-first century.”

“An essential read for understanding the conflict between the United States and Venezuela” Noam Chomsky.

Featuring a veritable who’s who of the Sao Paulo music scene, from cult soundtrack producer Gui Amabis to Brazil’s most in-demand rhythm section, Dengue and Pupilo, this second album is a testament to the sophistication of current Brazilian music. Nodding to Brazil’s musical past – from plinking samba guitars to Sixties-flavoured horns – the music weaves these elements into a blend of electronic and acoustic textures. Rosa Menina Rosa, with its vibes and vintage synths has a dark, dreamlike feel. And at the centre of it all is that spookily composed voice, at once other-worldly and knowing. This is wonderfully classy music, that will bring a deliciously different sense of now straight into your living room.

It is important for people to realise that Santiago, as well as other tourist areas in northern and southern Chile (Atacama Desert, Pucon, Patagonia, etc), are all fine. Although aftershocks can be felt in Santiago, the city is not damaged significantly like in Concepcion.

The travel industry is vital to the nation’s economy and visiting Chile as a tourist is the best thing you could do to boost the economy and help rebuild the country.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the aftershock early Friday had a magnitude of 6.6 and was centered 41 kilometres northwest of Concepcion, the city hardest hit by last Saturday’s quake. There are no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The story of chocolate spans more than 3,000 years and began in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America where cacao trees, the seeds of which are made into chocolate, first grew. These tropical evergreen trees are native to Central and South America.

The botanical name of the tree that gives us chocolate is Theobroma Cacao, which literally means ‘food of the gods.’ The tree’s modern generic Latin name (Theobrama Cacao) actually derives from the Mayan word ‘cacao’ meaning ‘god food.’

Cacao trees produce large leathery fruits containing large seeds enveloped by a sweet-sour, cream-colored pulp. Fruits sometimes called pods can get to be the size of footballs and may contain as many as 50 seeds. Chocolate is made from the large seeds. It takes around 400 seeds to make 1 pound of chocolate.

The earliest known evidence for cacao use dates from around 1100 BC. Researchers identified residue of a chemical compound that comes exclusively from the cacao plant – the source of chocolate – in pottery vessels at an archaeological site in Puerto Escondido, Honduras.

The earliest cacao beverages consumed at Puerto Escondido were likely produced by fermenting the sweet pulp surrounding the seeds – and it was this beer-like drink that started the chocolate craze

The chocolate enjoyed by later Mesoamerican civilizations like the Maya and Aztecs was made from ground cacao seeds with added seasonings, producing a spicy, frothy drink.

Both the Maya and Aztec people prized cacao, using the beans not only for culinary purposes but also for trade and as currency. Pre-Conquest chocolate was almost always a drink, which had many forms and flavourings. The Maya brewed a spicy, bitter sweet drink by roasting and pounding the seeds of the cacao tree (cocoa beans) with maize and capsicum (chilli) peppers and letting the mixture ferment. The Aztecs, like the Mayans, also enjoyed cacao as a beverage fermented from the raw beans. The Aztecs called this drink Xocolatl, the Spanish conquistadors found this almost impossible to pronounce and so corrupted it to the easier ‘chocolat,’ the English further changed this to chocolate.

Chocolate was of major ceremonial importance to the Maya and the Aztecs. It was served at lavish banquets, buried with the dead, and used to anoint newborn babies. The Aztec’s also regarded chocolate as an aphrodisiac and their Emperor, Montezuma reputedly drank it fifty times a day from a golden goblet.

In fact, the Aztec’s prized Xocolatl so highly, that when Montezuma was defeated by Cortez in 1519 and the victorious ‘conquistadors’ searched his palace for the Aztec treasury expecting to find gold and silver, all they found were huge quantities of cocoa beans!

The Spanish brought cacao back to Europe in the 16th century. Eventually the drink’s popularity spread throughout the continent. Since then, new technologies and innovations have changed the texture and taste of chocolate, but it still remains one of the world’s favourite flavours.

Today, per capita consumption of chocolate in the United States and western Europe has doubled since 1945. The Swiss and the British eat the most chocolate. The Norwegians and Austrians drink the most chocolate.

Should any chocolate lovers need justification to indulge in their sweet addiction, the good news is that chocolate provides minerals such as potassium and calcium. Research also indicates that cacao consumption produces a marijuana-like effect, with a harmless euphoria. Chocoholics everywhere will attest to at least a mildly ecstatic psychological state from chocolate.

Remember to look for fair-trade designations when purchasing chocolate as cacao plantations are often criticised for poor working conditions and the destruction of rainforests.

The event raises awareness of the fact that an estimated one billion people around the world are currently living without secure shelter and draws homeless players from 60 different countries. It is one of the biggest football events of the year, with thousands of spectators expected throughout the week.

Football has the power to uplift spirits, rebuild broken lives, and create new paths for a better future. Being part of it and making a difference is simply a magical experience that will stay with you forever.

The Homeless World Cup provides an exciting opportunity to work closely with people of another culture and make a difference in their lives. Regardless of the work you carry out, you will inject enthusiasm and encourage the local volunteers by sharing the burden of the numerous tasks involved in making the event happen on a daily basis.

To participate you just need to raise the minimum amount of sponsorship (£2300 or £800 if you are a self funder), which will allow you plus a homeless player to be part of this amazing event. If you raise £2300 (or equivalent in other currencies) in sponsorship then your flights, accommodation and food are provided for free.

If you are interested in volunteering at the Homeless World Cup please contact Volunteer Latin America

Richard Gross, a geophysicist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has concluded the rotation of the Earth should have altered as a result of the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday.

It means the earthquake has probably shortened the length of a day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).

Mr Gross said the 9.1-magnitude Sumatran earthquake in 2004 has also shortened the length of day by 6.8 microseconds.