Mexican President Felipe Calderon has inaugurated the world’s highest cable-stayed bridge. The 403m (1,321ft) tall Baluarte bridge spans a deep ravine in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in the north. It is part of a new highway crossing some of Mexico’s most rugged terrain, from Mazatlan on the Pacific Coast to Durango in the interior. The cable-stayed bridge is so tall that the Eiffel Tower would easily fit under its central span. “This project will unite the people of northern Mexico as never before,” President Calderon said at the inauguration ceremony. Officials from the Guinness World of Records were on hand to present him with an award recognising the engineering feat.

The opening of the 1,124m (3,687ft) long bridge is part of celebrations to mark 200 years of Mexico’s independence from Spain. It is expected to open to traffic later this year, and Mexican officials hope it will boost tourism and commerce in the region. The Mazatlan-Durango highway replaces a notoriously dangerous winding road known as the “Devil’s backbone” that crosses the jagged peaks of the Sierra Madre Occidental. As well as Baluarte, there will be eight other bridges over 300m high, as well as more than 60 tunnels. Officials say it will reduce the journey between Mazatlan and Durango by about six hours. Eventually, it will form part of a modern highway linking the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. As the highest cable-stayed bridge in the world, it surpasses the famous Millau Viaduct in France.

LIVFund awarded more than US$5,000 in scholarships to facilitate cultural exchanges in Latin America in their inaugural year (2011).

In 2012, they will be awarding 24 scholarships to outstanding individuals who are inspired to do something different – learn, intern or volunteer abroad in Latin America.

They currently have scholarship recipients in Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

For more information, please visit www.LIVFund.org or email info@livfund.org.

A huge Pre-Inca 50-by-50-foot burial pit has been found near an ancient Northern Peru pyramid. The pyramid is part of the Sicán site, the capital of the Lambayeque people who ruled Peru’s northern coast from about 900 to 1100 A.D. There are possibly more than 100 nude bodies, with some of them being headless. Almost all the bodies are males, with the exception of two children, each accompanied by what appears to be an adult woman. All the dead were likely willing participants from local communities engaged in a ritual that celebrated death so that new life could emerge.

As more and more places in the developed world join those already heavily reliant on non-domestic resources, it’s no wonder that folks in some developing nations might be worried about the future – and in Brazil, they are. According to the results of a new poll, half of all Brazilians surveyed are either certain, or strongly believe that within the next 20 years an attack will be waged on their homeland for control of the resource-rich Amazon rainforest. But who would do such a thing? Well, 37 percent say the United States is a likely aggressor.

The survey, conducted by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), found that out of the 3,796 Brazilians questioned, there are underlying concerns about the state of their nation’s resources. All told, 50 percent of respondents were seriously concerned about attacks pertaining to the Amazon; 45 percent believed that access to Brazil’s pre-salt resources could lead to an attack.

When asked which nation they feared was most likely to attack, 37 percent said the United States. Meanwhile, only 32 percent perceived the United States as an ally.

“People still find themselves threatened with countries which have unmatched military capabilities. At the same time, U.S. companies export, make investments and the possibility of partnership is very high. This ambiguity stems from the variety and versatility of U.S. power,” researcher Rodrigo Fracalossi tells G1 Globo News.

To many Americans, this scepticism felt by Brazilians in regards to U.S. foreign policy in Latin American may come as a surprise. But it wouldn’t be the first time charges that the U.S. might use force to acquire resources has been levelled. The notion that the U.S. military in recent Middle East conflicts was driven by oil persists to this day, both domestically and abroad.

With the world becoming an ever more crowded place, where the finite resources are already being stretched thin in places, it seems entirely possible that future international conflicts will be spurred not by the traditional triggers, but by a lack of water, arable farmland, or fossil fuels. And if that is indeed the case, Brazil, with its abundance of natural resources, could very well find itself on the front line one day.

A 10-year-old Mexican girl has given premature birth to a baby boy weighing 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds), Mexican media outlets reported.

The mother was initially admitted to Hospital de la Mujer in Puebla, located about 60 miles southeast of Mexico City, on 22 October, suffering from seizures and other medical problems. Surgeons at the hospital delivered the infant by Caesarean section after a 31-week pregnancy.

According to UpFront News, hospital officials have confirmed the birth.

Hospital director Rogelio Gonzalez told The Latin American Herald Tribune that the child is in the neonatal intensive care unit, recovering from pneumonia. The mother, who has since been released, has been breastfeeding the child.

“[She] comes every day with her mother to breastfeed her son every four hours and she is recovering very well from her surgery,” Gonzalez said.

The young girl, who is almost 11 years old, is reportedly from the San Francisco Totimehuacan community. According to Gonzalez, the state’s minimum age of consent is 12 and abortion is illegal unless the mother was the victim of a sexual assault. As a result, the Puebla state Attorney General’s Office has been notified of the birth and is investigating.

Other girls have given birth at that age or younger. In August 2010, an 11-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather gave birth after she was denied an abortion because she was in her fourth month of pregnancy, ksee24.com reported.

The youngest mother on record for giving birth is Lina Medina. According to Mid Day, she was five years old when she gave birth to a baby boy in 1939. The father was not positively identified.

In regard to this most recent case, Gonzalez told aciprensa.com he has the “best expectations” for the child’s recovery.

It was once thought that all Yanomami Indians of the Brazilian Amazon had been contacted during the latter half of the 20th century.

This photograph shows otherwise.

Released by Survival International last week, the image reveals that there is a community of uncontacted Yanomami still living in the heart of the largest forested indigenous territory in the world, in northern Brazil.

But illegal gold mining camps are operating just 15 kilometres from where they live. If the miners are not expelled as a matter of urgency, they could come into contact with the community and pose a threat to their lives: the Yanomami will have little or no immunity to diseases brought in by outsiders.

At least 800 people from Brazil’s army and police force are now involved in a mission to remove the gold miners; it has been reported that so far, 30 have been evicted.

“There are many uncontacted Indians,” Davi Kopenawa, a spokesman for the Yanomami, told Survival International recently. “I want to help my uncontacted relatives, who have the same blood as us. They have never seen the white man’s world.”

If they do not want to join the white man’s world, that’s entirely up to them. It is their choice – and their right – to remain isolated.

The Amazon Rainforest has been voted as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, based on a first count of worldwide voting, which closed on 11th November 2011. The other 6 Wonders are Halong Bay (Vietnam), Iguazu Falls (Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay), Jeju Island (Korea), Komodo (Indonesia), Puerto Princesa (Philippines), and Table Mountain (South Africa). Results are subject to change; a final list will be released in 2012. Locals are optimistic that these results may boost tourism in the Amazon and surrounding regions, potentially raising the standards of living of many impoverished people seeking social advancement.

Beach-goers should stay on their toes – if they don’t want to risk losing them – as thousands of aggressive piranhas infest Daveron beach in western Brazil

Travellers planning a visit to Cáceres in Mato Grosso, western Brazil should think twice before dipping their toes in the water at Daveron beach, as thousands of flesh-eating piranhas have stormed the shallow waters of this popular river-side.

Over the past two weeks 15 attacks have been reported, with swimmers losing chunks of their toes, ankles and legs, but local authorities refuse to close the beach. Instead large signs have been posted warning swimmers that the area is at risk of piranha attacks. Beach-goers have also been told to leave the water immediately if they are bitten to reduce the risk of blood spreading.

Despite remaining open, the normally popular beach has lost its allure. The piranha-infested waters have locals and tourists keeping their distance; the beach stayed deserted on Tuesday regardless of being a national Brazilian holiday.

Although piranhas are common in rivers on the outskirts of the city, Daveron Beach had never experienced problems with these aggressive fish until they began schooling in the area roughly two weeks ago.

There are numerous myths surrounding piranha attacks, one of the most common being that a single drop of blood can attract a school of piranha, resulting in the laceration of a human body in seconds. However, there is little scientific evidence to back this up. Piranhas typically only bite once, but a single bite is enough to cause serious damage, including blood and tissue loss.

Early Sunday morning, 3,000 police and soldiers arrived in Rocinha, the biggest slum in Rio, all of Brazil, and even Latin America, to begin the process of pacification. They arrived heavily armed, some in armoured tanks. By the afternoon, troops hoisted the state and national flags, declaring the favela under state control. The massive operation met no resistance, and not a single shot was fired.

As some predicted, the occupation was peaceful. Rocinha, after all, does suffer from violence, but less in comparison to other favelas, notably Complexo do Alemão, which is known as Rio’s “Gaza Strip.” Rocinha is also a place constantly frequented by outsiders: Cariocas from around the city for funk parties, foreigners and Cariocas working for local NGOs, and tourists. Since the initial occupation was mostly uneventful, it left many wondering why such a massive operation with such intensive media coverage was necessary.

The name of the operation itself seemed an oxymoron: Operação Choque de Paz, or Operation Shock of Peace. It was hardly a shock, given that the occupation was announced well in advance and everyone knew it was coming, and wasn’t so much of a military “shock” given the lack of violence. While the capture of Rocinha’s top drug trafficker helped avoid a clash during the occupation, other traffickers had time to flee. Since several police officers and traffickers were arrested “escorting” some of the traffickers during Nem’s failed escape, it’s likely other drug traffickers had ample time to leave Rocinha before the occupation. (In the past, though, some of the traffickers simply moved out of newly pacified favelas into other favelas.) Conspiracy theorists even speculated if the state government made a deal with traffickers to leave before the operation.

Security forces encountered no resistance from traffickers, except for trash left blocking some streets and oil poured on the roads in Rocinha and Vidigal (a nearby favela that was also occupied) intended to make the streets slippery. By announcing the massive operation ahead of time and raising the possibility of clashes between traffickers and police, the state government guaranteed its success with the eventual absence of violence by exceeding expectations. Also, by demonstrating a show of force, the state government also gave Rio’s middle and upper classes, as well as the foreign community de olho before the World Cup and Olympics, a sign that it’s serious about combating crime and imposing order.

Want to know the size of Prince Charles’s feet, where to have Christmas lunch or how to stop the buzzing noise in your apartment? Don’t ask the Foreign Office.

Minister Jeremy Browne has had to tell Britons abroad not to seek such answers at the UK’s network of embassies, high commissions and consulates, as FO staff get contacted about weather forecasts, booking tickets and the best fishing spots in Greece.

“We will always try to help where we can but there are limits to the support that we can provide,” said Browne, the minister responsible for consular affairs. “Our priority is to help people in real difficulty abroad and we cannot do this if our time is diverted by people trying to use us as a concierge service. We need to be able to focus primarily on helping victims of serious crimes, supporting people who have been detained or assisting people who have lost a loved one abroad.”

The government had to set up a special call centre in Malaga, Spain, to filter inquiries. Recent ones included a request for Phil Collins’s telephone number and someone wanting to know the heir to the throne’s shoe size so she could send him a pair as a present. A caller in Malaga wanted to know in September where she could get Christmas lunch because everywhere she had rung so far was already full.

A man rang the consulate in Sydney to find out what clothes he should pack for his holiday while a Brit in Sofia, Bulgaria, hoped consulate staff could sell his house for him. A caller in Florida wanted advice on dealing with ants in his holiday villa, a woman in Moscow complained about the buzzing in her apartment and someone in Greece wanted to know how to go about setting up a chicken coop in his garden. In Dubai, staff were asked if they could meet a man’s dog on arrival at customs as he would be on holiday.