Rio de Janeiro motel owner Secundino Lema is gearing up for a different kind of guest in June when thousands of visitors will be in his city to discuss the future of the planet.

The erotic chairs that usually grace the rooms in his three establishments, Hawaii, Skorpios and Serramar are going.

But the mirrors on the ceiling and jacuzzis are staying.

Mr Lema, along with other owners of Rio’s 320 “love hotels,” is stepping in to help the authorities fill a huge need in the Brazilian city – the chronic lack of accommodation.

It is estimated that some 50,000 people, including world leaders, will be in Rio de Janeiro for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, but there are only 30,000 rooms available in what might be termed more conventional hotels.

All Mr Lema’s rooms are booked for the conference which gets under way on 13 June, with the main event running from 20-22 June.

He agreed to charge $160 (£100) a night, much less than what is now being asked by the few hotels still with rooms available.

It is also less than he would expect to earn from the couples who usually pay to rent his rooms for periods of four, six or 12 hours.

Mr Lema, who says he is doing this “for the city”, also agreed with the authorities that he would not offer rooms by the hour while the UN summit was on.

That means turning down the 2,000 guests he would normally put up in his 170 bedrooms.

“It will be awkward not being able to receive our usual clients during this period, but I hope they understand the need to host people from abroad,” Mr Lema said.

The “love hotel” business boomed in Rio over the past few decades as somewhere discreet for couples to go but in recent years has seen a decline.

Antonio Cerqueira, vice-president of Rio’s hotel, bar and restaurant association (SindRio), links this to more liberal attitudes to sex developing in a still somewhat conservative Brazil.

“Habits are changing. Young people used to crave turning 18 so they could go to a motel, but now even when they are 16 they sleep over at their boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s. Parents now allow it because they consider it safer.”

But with Rio set to be a host city of the 2014 Fifa World Cup and be the venue of the 2016 Olympics, love motel owners have spotted a business opportunity and realised growth is in the corporate sector.

Mr Cerqueira, who himself owns Shalimar and Sinless (slogan: Because love is not a sin), says about a third of the motels are now ready to receive all types of guest.

Their new decor aims to strike a balance between love and business.

Motel owners have stripped off the velvet wall coverings, removed more quirky items such as the erotic chairs, and brought in more light.

But many of the rooms, reached by private garages, still have round beds, and other added extras.

“The new guests will like it. They can get back to their motel and have a bath in the whirlpool while watching the news,” says Mr Cerqueira.

But Mr Lema is still remaining partly loyal to his love motel roots.

While agreeing to let his rooms to conference guests, he had one demand: to keep Brazil’s Dia dos Namorados or Lovers’ Day out of the negotiations.

That special date is 12 June – just a day before events at Rio +20 begin.

But it is also the busiest time of the year for motels.

“All our rooms get full,” Mr Lema says.

Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Malvinas War, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner delivered a speech at the cenotaph in the recently expanded Islas Malvinas square In Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego to pay tribute to the 649 Argentines who died during the 1982 war and all veterans.

“We are here to recognize the brave men that today can show their medals which were won with honour on the battlefield, as well to those youngsters who without any proper training, gave their lives for this nation and always marched toward the enemy and bravely faced their fears,” the President expressed today.

“We are not here to commemorate war. War only brings poverty, violence, and makes things go backwards. Nothing good comes out of war. We just want a more just and peaceful world for everybody,” Fernández de Kirchner stated.

At the same time, the Head of State reinforced that idea of the UK being “totally absurd to claim sovereignty over a territory that’s more than 14,000 kilometres from them.”

Likewise, the President echoed the comments made by UK’s Prime Minister Cameron to the British media:

“I heard the statements made by British Prime Minister (David Cameron) this morning, when he said that Argentine forces came to steal the islanders freedom, and thought he is clearly not aware that back then, the Argentine people’s freedom was also taken captive by the military junta. It was a war pushed by a military coup; it was not the Argentine people who decided to go on to war. But since 1983 the people of Argentina chose to be a peaceful and democratic nation.”

Furthermore, Fernández de Kirchner emphasized that, “No one can say that Argentina does not welcome with open arms people from all over the world. There are only few countries in the world with such an open immigration policy as the Argentina.”

To end, the President revealed that “on Friday I personally sent a letter to the International Red Cross so the UK can collaborate in the identification of those dead men from either side that yet remain unidentified as I believe that every mother in this world has the right to mourn their fallen kids.”

Yesterday, Vice-President Amado Boudou participated in a similar ceremony in Río Grande, also in Tierra del Fuego, alongside Cabinet ministers including Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo and Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman.

Malvinas war veterans from across Argentina had arrived yesterday in Ushuaia and Río Grande cities to participate in the vigil.

Carlos Latorre, the head of the Malvinas veterans centre, yesterday confirmed that speakers at the ceremony would include the President, Ushuaia mayor Federico Sciurano and Tierra del Fuego Governor Fabiana Ríos.

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner began the country’s main ceremony in remembrance of the Malvinas (Falklands) War today at midday.

The ceremony takes place in Plaza Islas Malvinas to mark the 30 year anniversary of the conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

The president, accompanied by members of her cabinet, vice-president Amado Boudou and local authorities, will give a speech followed by words from Tierra del Fuego governor Fabiana Rios. In total there will be five speakers, including war veterans from around the country.

A monument bearing a map of the Malvinas and a cenotaph with the names of soldiers lost in the conflict are located in the square.

Other acts of commemoration are happening throughout the country. Today at 11.30am, the names of the 649 soldiers killed in the conflict were placed on a cenotaph in Plaza San Martín, Retiro. In Plaza de Mayo, ex-soldier who were placed in military bases in Patagonia laid replicas of the cross in memory of those killed.

As a sign of protest, the Quebracho group along with other organisations will march from 1pm, from the cenotaph in Retiro to the British embassy.

For the first time in South American history, a foreign gay couple got married yesterday in Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. Simón Cazal and Sergio Lopez, two Paraguayan citizens, are the first homosexual foreigners to tie the knot in Latin America.

The Argentine Homosexual Community (CHA) is celebrating this union as an inclusion of foreign people into the “exercise of a constitutional and human right.”

Cazal and Lopez, leaders of the Paraguayan organization SomosGay (WeAreGay), worked with the local LGBT Argentine Federation to make this marriage possible.

They decided to get married in Rosario after the Socialist municipality passed a resolution ordering civil servants to accept marriage requests coming from all foreigners and tourists. To be granted the right to get married in Santa Fe people have to stay for at least four days. In Buenos Aires, foreign gay couples have to wait at least for three months to get a work/study visa that would allow them to get married.

After the honeymoon, the couple is travelling back to Paraguay where they will ask for the official recognition of their marital status.

“One of the options for us was (to get married in) Spain,” told Simón Cazal to a journalist. “Sergio lived there for a while and part of his family still lives in Tarragona, he could have applied for citizenship there. But when heard about marriage here, so close, literally across the river, we got very excited and we opted (for Argentina). It was available, it was real.”

Cesar Cigliutti, president of the CHA, wrote in an official statement that “the marriage of Simon and Sergio is also an act of defiance against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

“We are proud that Argentina is the first country in Latin America and the Caribbean to pass the Equal Marriage, and also the first one to include foreign partners in the exercise of constitutional and human rights.”

Hundreds of scantily clad and nude cyclists took to the streets of Peru’s capital, Lima, on Saturday, to call attention to safety conditions on the city’s roads.

Campaigners say that thousands have been killed on the roads because of reckless driving.

Many of the cyclists painted slogans and signs on their bare skin.

Reports say the convoy cut off roads along an 11km (6.8 mile) route through the main thoroughfares of Lima.

“This is our body. With this, we go out in the streets. We don’t have a car to protect us,” event organiser Octavio Zegarra told the Associated Press news agency.

Between 300 and 500 cyclists are estimated to have taken part in the mobile protest.

Cyclists on the protest highlighted a number of complaints, such as not having a dedicated cycle lane.

“I have gone naked because it’s the way to raise awareness of our rights for example the bicycle lanes that are never free, there are always taxis parked, police sleeping,” protester Milagro Esquivel told the Reuters news agency.

There are numerous stories of dolphins that have come to the aid of distressed humans in kindly acts of interspecies courtesy out at sea – but now, following a startling incident in Brazil, at least one pod of dolphins has a similar tale to share.

What started out as just another sunny morning at the beach, 70 miles east of Rio de Janeiro, took a sudden turn earlier this week as nearly an entire pod of dolphins washed onto the sand and began struggling in the surf. Fortunately for the 20 or so animals in serious risk of becoming stranded, they weren’t alone. Just as quickly as the dolphins began wading ashore, dozens of helpful beachgoers arrived to offer them a helping hand back out to sea – and fortunately for the rest of us, their heroism and quick-thinking was all caught on video.

The details are slim beyond what can be gathered from the video clip above, but such scenes of dolphin landings are undoubtedly rare. The pod can be seen rapidly approaching from some distance out, perhaps corralling a school of fish, before crashing ashore seemingly unexpectedly. One possible explanation for the wash up may be navigational error; the beach where the incident occurred, Arraial do Cabo, lies on a thin strip of land jutting out along the otherwise relatively unvaried coastline which the pod might not have accounted for.

It may be impossible to tell for certain whether or not the dolphins would have managed to make it back to open waters on their own, but thankfully there were some heroic passersby on hand to ensure they all survived. Without hesitation, more than a dozen people joined in the effort to pull, scoot, and nudge the imperiled pod away from the shore to deeper waters.

Considering that dolphins and humans hail from different worlds, one might expect there to be little common ground shared among the two. Yet somewhere in that gradient divide between land and sea, it seems no insurmountable difference can be found at all – just a helping hand if one strays too far.

Mexico’s capital is ready to stomp out its iconic Volkwagen “Bug” taxis. Officials said on Friday that the last of the old-style VW Beetles will have their cab licenses expire by the end of the year, marking the end of an adventurous if uncomfortable part of Mexico City life.

The rounded, two-door sedan nicknamed the Bug – in Mexico, it’s a ‘Vocho’ – has long been an informal symbol of this sprawling city, a tough, rattling reflection of its gritty urbanity and chaotic streets.

At its height in 2006, the little VWs accounted for almost half of all taxis in Mexico City, with about 50,000 cruising the streets. Today, there are only about 3,500 of the privately owned and operated Bugs among 130,000 taxis.

Victor Ramirez, director of taxi services for the city’s transport department, said time has run out for the classic VW design that evolved from the original Beetle of 1930s Germany.

The model hasn’t been manufactured since 2003, when the last one rolled off an assembly line in the Mexican state of Puebla.

For safety reasons, Mexico City began mandating four-door taxis in 2003. So the Beetles that entered service in 2002 are the last to operate as cabs. Most car models are limited by the city to eight years of service as taxis, but the Bug was allowed a 10-year run – and that ends with 2012.

Despite their role as icons, the VW taxis have never won plaudits for comfort. Drivers remove the front passenger seat so customers can get in more easily, leaving only the ungenerous back seat.

And with no front seat, there is little to stop the passenger from being thrown forward in a mishap, Ramirez noted.

“If they slammed on the brakes and you weren’t wearing a seat belt, you wound up in the windshield,” he said. “The government mandated four-door cars, with trunks, to ensure passengers’ safety.”

For a time, in the 1990s and early 2000s, Bug taxis were notorious as a robbery trap. Because there were only two doors, muggers or kidnappers could push their way through the passenger door, leaving the passenger no way to escape.

Many people felt a pang of nostalgia for the Bug after Friday’s announcement, even while acknowledging the little car’s shortcomings.

“It’s a loss, not exactly for its comfort, but because it was economical to operate,” said Hector Vera Perez, who was a cabbie in the 1970s.

Vera Perez, now a 65-year-old ambulance driver, said the Vocho was much cheaper to run than the big American cars that made up the majority of the city’s taxi fleet in those days.

He also argued that the Bugs made the city’s streets safer, noting they were slow, fragile and noisy.

“Today the cars (used as taxis) are bigger, and they drive faster,” he said. “Before, they drove more cautiously, because any accident would destroy them.”

Some people said the VW taxis are easier to find: The engine is so noisy you can hear them rattling down the street blocks away.

Ramirez said that after nearly 10 years of constant use on the capital’s punishing streets, the VWs that are losing their taxi licenses are in pretty bad shape. But the city wants to get them off the road, so taxi owners who turn in Bugs to be crushed will get 15,000-peso credits toward the purchase of new cabs, he said.

In some ways, it was the VW’s fragility that endeared it to drivers. Vera Perez recalled fondly how easy it was to fix a Vocho after a fender-bender.

“You just took the fender off with a wrench and got another one.”

Morrissey has courted further controversy over his stance on the Falkland Islands after his band played to 15,000 Argentine fans wearing “We Hate William and Kate” T-shirts.

The former Smiths frontman repeated his assertion that the disputed islands belonged to Argentina, not Britain, as tensions between the two countries have reached their highest level since the conflict, which was 30-years ago next month.

Five members of his band wore the T-shirts featuring a wedding photo of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the concert on Sunday night.

“We all know that the Malvinas (Falklands) are Argentina’s,” he said, telling the Argentines not to “blame” the British people “because it is the government that decides.”

“The (British) government, the governments, never listen to the people, to their pain,” he said.

Morrissey’s five-strong band appeared alongside a flag of Argentina which took centre stage on their drum kit.

Argentine fans praised the incendiary T-shirts in online forums.

In recent weeks Union Jacks have been burnt outside the British Embassy in Buenos Aires.

Tensions have rocketed in Argentina since Prince William was posted to the Falklands for a six-week RAF flight training operation last month.

The 30th anniversary of the start of the Falklands War, which claimed the lives of 649 Argentine and 255 British servicemen, is on April 2.

Morrissey, currently on tour in South America, is the latest in a line of celebrities to back Argentina’s claim to the Falklands.

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters told Chilean channel TVN last week that he thought the Falklands “should be Argentine.”

The bass player has since moved to quell anger over his remarks by insisting in a Facebook post that he never said the disputed islands should definitely belong to Argentina.

American actor Sean Penn caused outrage when he made similar comments in Buenos Aires.

Morrissey has had a long career of causing controversy. His 1988 debut solo album featured the track Margaret On The Guillotine, about the execution of Baroness Thatcher.

The singer told a Colombian radio station last week that he was ignored by the British media because of his song material and bragged that he had never been offered a Brit award.

“This proves that I am important,” he said.

An ice dam at Argentina’s Perito Moreno glacier has collapsed, creating an impressive spectacle not seen since July 2008, although few tourists were awake to experience the moment.

Several tonnes of ice fell off the 60-metre ice dam into Lago Argentina at the national park in southern Santa Cruz province.

About 5000 tourists had been in the park on Saturday awaiting the ice show, park rangers said.

But the slight movement of ice that began on Wednesday turned into an avalanche at about 4am, leaving visitors disappointed.

Only a group of rangers saw the collapse, which created a crash heard several kilometres away, accelerated by heavy rainfall overnight.

“The noise was very great, it was coming down in buckets,” park ranger Carlos Corvalan said.

Perito Moreno, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Argentina, is one of the largest glaciers on the Patagonian ice cap.

The glacier has a travel speed of 1.7 metres a day in its central part and periodically creates an ice dam which collapses from the pressure of the advancing glacier.

The glacier was named after one of the first explorers in Argentine Patagonia.

Relatively mild drought conditions may have been enough to cause the collapse of the Classic Maya civilisation, which flourished until about AD950 in what is now southern Mexico and Guatemala.

Scientists have long thought that severe drought caused its collapse.

But Mexican and British researchers now think that a sustained drop in rainfall of only 25-40% was enough to exhaust seasonal water supplies in the region.

The findings were published in the journal Science.

The research was conducted by the Yucatan Centre for Scientific Research in southern Mexico and the University of Southampton in the UK.

Scientists used advanced modelling techniques to estimate rainfall and evaporation rates between AD800 and 950, when the classic Maya civilisation went into sharp decline.

They found that a relatively modest decline in rainfall was enough to deplete freshwater storage systems in the Yucatan lowlands, where there are no rivers.

Future warning?

“These reductions amount to only 25 to 40% in annual rainfall, but they were large enough for evaporation to become dominant over rainfall, and open water was rapidly reduced,” Professor Eelco Rohling of Southampton University told the Press Association.

“Societal disruptions and abandonment of cities are likely consequences of critical water shortages, especially because there seems to have been a rapid repetition of multi-year droughts,” he added.

The reconstructed droughts are similar in extent to some predictions for the near future of the same region as a result of climate change.

“There are differences too, but the warning is clear – what seems like a minor reduction in water availability may lead to important, long-lasting problems,” Professor Martin Medina-Elizalde said.

“The problem is not unique to the Yucatan Peninsula, but applies to all regions in similar settings where evaporation is high,” he added.

Archaeologists have long been intrigued by the collapse of the Classic Maya civilisation, which flourished for around six centuries and developed sophisticated architecture, mathematics and culture.

Other studies have variously blamed social unrest, disease and deforestation for its demise.