Chile | featured news

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit central Chile on Sunday, injuring three people and prompting emergency officials to order an evacuation along parts of the coast. There were no immediate reports of major damage.

The failed Russian space probe Phobos-Grunt fell back to Earth on Sunday, crashing in the southeastern Pacific Ocean off Chile, Russia's state news agency Itar-Tass announced.

All 21 people aboard a military plane that went missing off Chile's Pacific coast, near the Juan Fernandez islands, are dead, Defense Minister Andres Allamand said Saturday, CNN Chile reported.

One of the myths surrounding the 33 miners who were so dramatically rescued after being trapped for 69 days deep inside a Chilean copper mine is that they’re all millionaires and no longer need to work. The truth: nearly half the men have been unemployed since their mine collapsed one year ago Friday, and just one, the flamboyant Mario Sepulveda, has managed to live well off the fame. Most have signed up to give motivational speeches. Four, so far, have gone back underground to pound rock for a living.

Virtually all of the miners who were trapped for 69 days in a Chilean mine last year have filed a lawsuit against the government, seeking more than half a million dollars each in damages.

Molecules of hydrogen peroxide have been found for the first time in interstellar space. The discovery gives clues about the chemical link between two molecules critical for life: water and oxygen. On Earth, hydrogen peroxide plays a key role in the chemistry of water and ozone in our planet’s atmosphere, and is familiar for its use as a disinfectant or to bleach hair blonde. Now it has been detected in space by astronomers using the ESO-operated APEX telescope in Chile..

Dozens of flights were cancelled Sunday after an ash cloud from an erupting volcano in Chile drifted thousands of miles over the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

Flights are returning to normal in major Argentine and Uruguayan airports, but ash from a Chilean volcano is now reaching Australia.

The Puyehue volcano in southern Chile erupted Saturday, sending a huge plume of smoke and ash into the sky and prompting officials to evacuate about 600 people living nearby. There were no reports of injuries. Authorities had put the area around the volcano on alert Saturday morning after a flurry of earthquakes, and the eruption began in the afternoon. The National Emergency Office said it recorded an average of 230 tremors an hour.

Two of the 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for two months said Sunday that plans for a movie chronicling their ordeal are moving fast.