A relaunched corporate social responsibility policy for Canadian mining companies has Development and Peace hopeful that Canadian companies will be held accountable for their environmental, labour and community investment records in Latin America, Africa and Asia. 

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Latin Americans said the election of the first Pope from the region is recognition of the role the global South plays in the Church's future.

LIMA, Peru - When Venezuela's bishops spoke out against postponing the inauguration of ailing President Hugo Chavez, the president's supporters accused them of meddling in politics, while government opponents praised their comments.

WASHINGTON - In a country that has seen more than 50,000 deaths in six years, it took the finding of 49 headless bodies, some also missing arms or legs, to shock Mexican officials.

The discovery of the bodies, on a road about 120 miles from the United States, highlighted a problem addressed recently during a spring meeting at the World Bank headquarters in Washington.

Outgoing World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick warned that the violence doesn't solely threaten Latin American citizens. It also poses a security threat to the United States, he said.

"The U.S. (needs) to take it seriously as a nation," he said, addressing an audience gathered for a forum on "Reducing Murder Rates in Central America: Searching for Solutions."

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - On a Friday in mid-March, Dominican police were called to a three-story hotel that sits off a major highway in a busy neighborhood here.

Inside, they found a grisly crime scene: a woman, strangled to death, and the 37-year-old man who'd killed her hanged dead with the bed sheets.