Santiago  - At least 10 prisoners died Sunday

Santiago de Chile  -

Santiago  - The ongoing world economic crisis could cause another 3 million people to lose their jobs in Latin America's urban areas alone, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said Friday.

It could also add another 10 to 15 million people to the poverty rolls, which already include 190 million people across Latin America.

The problem is projected to persist until late 2010, an ECLAC official, Jurgen Weller, told German Press Agency dpa.

Santiago  - The pilot of a helicopter that crashed in southern Chile, killing 12 firefighters combatting a forest fire, had flown the presidential plane for two presidents, local media reported Monday.

Eduardo Canala Pecchenino, 39, was on active duty for the Chilean Air Force and worked for the private firm operating the firefighting helicopter with permission from the military.

Santiago - The pilot of a helicopter that crashed in southern Chile, killing 12 firefighters combatting a forest fire, had flown the presidential plane for two presidents, local media reported Monday.

Eduardo Canala Pecchenino, 39, was on active duty for the Chilean Air Force and worked for the private firm operating the firefighting helicopter with permission from the military.

He and 12 firefighters who had been working since Friday to quench forest fires in the central Chilean region of Maule were killed when their helicopter crashed on Sunday. There were no survivors.

Santiago - The economies of Latin American and Caribbean countries are forecast to grow a collective 1.9 per cent next year amid the global downturn, a commission on the region's economic affairs said Thursday.

This year, the national economies of the region with 500 million people are to gain 8 per cent, the group Cepal said in the Chilean capital.