"Oil analysts don't expect sudden changes in Venezuela oil policies after Hugo Chavez's death. But political change in post-Chavez Venezuela could open its oil industry to much wider foreign investment."

"Hospitals are on red alert and parts of Buenos Aires have been evacuated as a toxic cloud descends upon the city."

"A species of giant tortoises from the Galapagos Islands could be brought back from extinction despite the death earlier this year of the famed 'Lonesome George,' a tourist magnet and conservation icon who was the last of his kind."

"For a clue to the possible impact of climate change on modern society, a study suggests a look back at the end of classic Maya civilization, which disintegrated into famine, war and collapse as a long-term wet weather pattern shifted to drought."

"BRASILIA, Brazil, October 18, 2012 (ENS) – President Dilma Rousseff has vetoed nine items of the Forestry Code approved by Congress in September. One of the vetoes cancels amnesty for those who cleared the rainforest illegally."

"Hundreds of Peruvian farm workers, the majority of them women, became sick after inhaling a pesticide sprayed on a nearby field, the state-run Andina news agency reported."

"A Brazilian judge said on Monday construction could resume on the controversial $13 billion Belo Monte dam in the Amazon, alleviating concerns that key work would not be done ahead of the rainy season."

"Clashes in northern Peru between police and demonstrators opposing a multi-million dollar gold mining project have left at least three people dead."

"Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff on Friday vetoed divisive elements of a new law that relaxes the forest cover farmers must preserve on their land, taking a stand against the agricultural lobby that pushed a more lenient version through Congress."

"Something awful is happening in the waters off Peru's northern coast, where some 3,000 dolphins have died and washed ashore since January. This rates as one of the worst, if not the worst, Unusual Mortality Event (UME) ever recorded. ...

"Chile's Supreme Court suspended a key permit for Canadian miner Goldcorp Inc's El Morro copper-gold project, the latest setback for the controversial project and one of the biggest legal blows to a mining project in the world's top copper producer."

"The warming Atlantic Ocean is drawing moisture away from the Western Amazon, drying the rainforest and catching residents by surprise. 'We weren't prepared.'"

"Brazilian activists who inform on illegal loggers laying waste to the rainforests can expect a visit from the gunmen."

"A review suggests that the Amazon rainforest may be changing, courtesy of human impacts on the region's weather."

"Brazil says the rate of deforestation in its Amazon region has fallen to the lowest level for 23 years."