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BRINGING RUGBY TO ARGENTINA’S MARGINALIZED YOUTH – AP

Alongside a busy highway in Buenos Aires, this amateur team of rugby players show all the professionalism of their sporting heroes.

They are the “Botines Solidarios”, meaning ‘solidarity through boots’.

The players come from one of the worst shanty towns in South America, known as Villa 31, and rugby has brought them a new sense of pride.

In Argentina, home of football greats like Maradona, rugby comes distant second to the nation’s passion…

THE RESCUE THAT RALLIED THE WORLD – MAIL ON SUNDAY

COPIAPO meeting point of global prayers

Just days after the dramatic rescue of 33 miners from a fallen Chilean mine shaft 2,300 feet underground where they had been trapped for 69 days, the events that lifted the world are now in their final phase.As ‘the 33’ as they are affectionately known prepare to return to their homes they set out on…

IRELAND’S LEGAL DRUG HAVENS ‘HEADING’ FOR TROUBLE – THE GUARDIAN

Shrouded behind shelves of psychedelic paraphernalia and rails of gothic apparel the strobe lighting illuminates a pick and mix laden assortment of concoctions.

The kaleidoscope of herbal and synthetic legal highs on show is as vibrant as the debate currently taking place in Ireland surrounding the ‘headshops’ that home them.

What Helen can’t say is that the cheap and legal highs her store sells are marketed as bath salts or incense but designed to be smoked, snorted or swallowed.…

PARAGUAY’S ANTI-MOSQUITO SHIRT- APTN

They are the bane of tourists the world over. As they flock eagerly to local landmarks, the resident mosquitoes size up the fresh visitors with lunch in mind. The pesky insect’s source of nutrition is found in the blood of animals and humans. But beside the itchy effects of their bite, mosquitoes are the most deadly disease transmitters known to man, killing millions…

IRISH INFLUENCE FOUND IN ARGENTINEAN NEWSPAPER – EMIGRANT

The story’s headline reads: “Dreadful news from the South, invasions of Indians, danger in the pampas.”

Not the typical headline you would expect to see in an Irish-centric newspaper, even from one of its editions dating all the way back to the end of the 19thcentury. However this is no ordinary newspaper; it’s as far flung from the nation of its creator as it is long in years and practice.

The Southern Cross or “La Cruz del Sur” is…

IRISH ‘HABITAT’ VOLUNTEERS BUILD HOMES AND GOODWILL IN PARAGUAY – EMIGRANT

While the eyes of the world last week were fixed firmly on Beijing, Irish eyes might reason to shine on some other worthy delegates of the green white and gold who just touched down in a very different part of the world and for a very different reason.

The 15 members of the “Habitat for Humanity Ireland,” Paraguay team are set to build two family homes in an impoverished community in the South of the country all before they…

BRAZIL ON THE FRONTLINE OF CLIMATE CHANGE – CSM

Framed by the brightly coloured sails of the wind-surfers and kite-surfers dancing on the Atlantic Ocean, Robson Barros’s beachfront restaurant sits amid the palm tree lined white sandy cove of Icarai.

Up until recently such idyllic beaches that dot Brazil’s northeast shoulder were uncharted territory for international visitors but a growing reputation as a Mecca for water sports enthusiasts has spawned an explosion of tourism.

The tables at Robson’s are abuzz with Europeans and North Americans trading superlatives about…