It’s not often you get a happy disaster story. But on Sunday – two weeks after their mineshaft in northern Chile caved in – all 33 miners acknowledged they were alive.

Trapped after rocks blocked their exit, they managed to live in a shelter 700 metres (2,300 feet) underground.

But rather than bring them straight out, rescuers now say they won’t be able to get them out until Christmas, posing a serious challenge ahead for the miners.

The accident

In June, award-winning American film director Oliver Stone released his latest documentary South of the Border into American cinemas.

The film looks at the phenomenal, yet relatively unknown revolution taking place in South and Central America.

There, a collection of presidents have rallied behind one main cause – to make their countries strong and prosperous by economically and socially empowering their people.

Haiti’s devastating magnitude 7 earthquake on January 12 was a brutal blow to the Western hemisphere’s poorest country.

220,000 people died, 300,000 were injured, and 300,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Including government buildings, schools, hospitals and other key infrastructure, the total damage is estimated to be US$7.8 billion.

Around the world in 60 seconds will return next week.

Shares in British petroleum company Desire Petroleum fell by about half their value last month, when the company announced that its latest search for oil in the Falkland Islands had been fairly unsuccessful.

A statement posted on the company’s website noted that the quality of the reservoir at the Liz 14/19-1 well was “poor.” A few weeks ago, Desire abandoned the Liz well.

The massive earthquake which devastated Haiti in January of this year saw a huge aid effort launched by the international community.

But there was one country that was first on the scene and whose extremely important medical assistance has been largely ignored by the media.

That country was Cuba, who in the last few years has become a generous and specialist provider of first response medical teams to crisis zones.

A small nation with a troubled economy, the one thing Cuba does possess is a free and compulsory education system.

On Saturday, another massive earthquake struck Latin America – this time on the coast of Chile.

The first was in Haiti – the western hemisphere's poorest country. Chile is South America’s wealthiest.

The difference in destruction and loss of life between the two has been seismic in itself.

It has now been two weeks since the Haiti earthquake, and on top of the 150,000 dead in the capital city, the problems are mounting.

The official search for bodies buried under the rubble has been called off and attention has now been diverted to caring for those still alive.

This is proving to be no small task. Aid agencies have said Haiti's earthquake is quite simply one of the worst disasters they have ever handled.

Decades of armed conflict and drug-related violence have given Colombia a reputation as one of the most dangerous places on earth.

But the country has witnessed a dramatic turn around, and improved security caused The New York Times to recently recommend Colombia as one of the places to visit in 2010.

Now Colombians must decide whether to allow the man who has overseen this remarkable transformation to compete for another presidential term. Because although hailed as a saviour by many, some fear his power is becoming too great.

On Tuesday, a magnitude 7 earthquake struck the heart of the small Caribbean island nation of Haiti.

It’s the worst earthquake the country has seen for two centuries, with the death toll in the thousands and critical infrastructure destroyed.

Sadly, it is yet another blow to this poor country’s attempts to build itself after years of turmoil and misfortune.

Dubbed ‘the son of the people,’ Evo Morales was elected last week to a second term as Bolivia’s president. This is a real achievement by Bolivian standards – the country saw five different leaders in the five years preceding him.

He must be doing something right, but he has his work cut out. Bolivia is still reeling from its colonial days, and the division between its indigenous people and European descendents has deepened since Morales took office.