This morning, at around 4am, a home-made bomb was thrown from a moving car at the Federal Penitentiary Service (SPF) building in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Once. The front of the building was damaged, but no one was injured.

The incident happened in the early hours of the morning, when a home-made bomb was thrown from an unidentified moving vehicle toward the building of the SPF, on Lavalle 2705. The bomb exploded in front of the main entrance to the building, and the glass from the door and a window were broken.

Personnel from the SPF who were in the premises alerted the police and the Anti-Explosives Brigade, who said the incident had been recorded by security cameras. The recordings are being analysed to identify the car from which the bomb was thrown, but so far the identity of the attackers remains unknown. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

A young South African kayaker following the Amazon River from source to sea is in stable condition after being shot and robbed by a pair attackers while on a Peruvian tributary.

David du Plessis, 24, was paddling down the Ucayali River near the province capital of Pucallpa, when two young men shot him numerous times, according to his father who spoke to the Vancouver Sun.

His mother told media sources that Du Plessis had decided to move closer to the shore after peculiar behaviour from some of the dolphins in the river.

“They started acting out of character by bashing his kayak. He didn’t want his kayak to break so he moved to the edge,” said Robyn Spence Wolff. Unfortunately, two men suddenly appeared from the jungle and Du Plessis’ close proximity to the shore put him within bullet range.

“They set up an ambush and they shot him from the woods,” said his father Louis du Plessis. The first knocked him out of his kayak and into the water, where he was hit a second time as he swam to shore. The final shot hit him when he reached land, said Louis.

Du Plessis then ran 5km through the jungle to the nearest tribe begging for help, something that was almost impossible because of the damage done by the shrapnel.

“He tried calling out but because of the gunshot to his neck, no sound came out,” said Spence Wolff. “He managed to attract their attention and ask for help. They wanted money to help him and when he said he didn’t have any, they took him to another tribe where he was left in a boat for four hours while the people argued about who was going to help him, until he started vomiting blood.”

Du Plessis was then taken downriver in a motorized boat to Pucallpa and eventually flown to a hospital in Lima in large thanks to the beverage company SABMiller, according to his parents.

“When we first spoke he was crying and telling me to come and fetch him,” said Spence Wolff. “I didn’t think he was going to make it.”

In intensive care, it was discovered that he had lost some of his hearing due to shrapnel around his ears and neck, both his lungs were filled with fluid and collapsed, and shrapnel was lodged in his heart.

“If he had gotten shot with anything other than a shotgun he would not be here with us. He is very, very lucky,” said Louis du Plessis.

According to the latest update on his Facebook page World Wonderer – The Amazon, Du Plessis is out of danger and is waiting to find out whether or not the shrapnel around his heart has moved, which will determine the next medical procedure.

“He is in good hands surrounded by the spirit of love. He will pull through. I am going to Lima and will wait till he can come home,” wrote his mother on the Facebook page.

Spence Wolff found out about her son’s attack after she received a phone call from a man named Darwin who only spoke some English. The next few days were a torrent of Facebook updates and phone calls from people around the world trying to help Spence Wolff.

“I need help. Does anyone know anyone in Peru, Davey has had an accident in the jungle, and I do not know where to start,” she wrote on Facebook right after receiving Darwin’s call.

Now both Du Plessis’ father and mother will join him in Lima as he recovers from his traumatic experience.

David, often called “Davey” had set out on his trip in late July from the summit of Mount Mismi, which is believed to be the source of the Amazon. He planned on traveling down the giant river all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.

Regional police commander in Pucallpa, Col. Cesar Augusto Larrea, told The Associated Press that investigators had gone upriver to locate the attackers but no arrests have been made so far.

Honduran journalist, José Encarnación Chinchilla López, is seeking political asylum in the United States, after his son was shot by two gunmen at his house on 3rd August.

The two gunmen on motorcycles reportedly opened fired on his home with 9-millimeter pistols seriously injuring his son, 24-year-old Jose Alberto Chinchilla Bardales. Chinchilla is a reporter for Radio Cadena Voces in the city of El Progreso, Yoro and claims this is the third attempt on his life.

He asked the US embassy in Tegucigalpa for permission to travel to the US with his wife and four children, Jose is expected to make a full recovery.

A journalist working at the station told the Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) that Chinchilla suspected an attack after he wrote a story about local gang activity. He also said that before Friday’s attack he had received threats after writing a piece about a local land dispute.

The news has gained international attention from numerous journalism organizations including the CPJ and The International Press Institute (IPI).

“In the last few years Honduras has become one of the most dangerous countries on earth for journalists. Regardless of the challenges, the Honduran authorities have an obligation to bring killers to justice and to roll back the tide of impunity. Otherwise, this deadly cycle of violence will continue,” said IPI Deputy Director Anthony Mills in statement regarding the attack.

According to IPI, three journalists have already died in 2012 with 18 others having been killed since June 2009.

Journalists at the Radio Cadena Voces have been targeted in the past. According to CPJ research, Carlos Salgado was murdered after reporting on government corruption. In that same year the radio’s director had to flee the country after his name appeared on a hit list., In 2009, journalist Rafael Mungía Ortiz was killed in what was deemed “unclear circumstances.”

The increase in attacks against journalists started after former president Manuel Zelaya was removed from office in what the Organisation of American States has called a coup d’état.

After 25 days struggling in hospital, Daniel Zumudio, the man who was left brain dead by a Neo-Nazi attack on 6th March, died on Tuesday after a complication in brain surgery.

The 24-year old was brutally attacked by four young men between the ages of 19 and 26, who have been identified by an anonymous phone call to the police. The attack was fuelled by homophobia, and the group branded his body with the Nazi symbol. They also ripped off part of his ear and tortured him.

His death has provoked a moral outcry in Chile and demand for an anti-discrimination law to be implemented.

Speaking from his visit to Asia, the Chilean president Sebastián Piñera condemned the attack. “The brutal and cowardly attack and death of Daniel Zamudio hurts not only his family but also all those people with good will.”

He assured that “his death would not go unpunished” and that the Chilean government is united against discrimination.

Human rights organisations have pointed to Chile’s seven-year rejection of an anti-discrimination law as blame for the attack. The family’s lawyer Jaime Parada has named the Chilean deputies as “morally guilty” for the attack.

Chilean deputies have pushed through an emergency anti-discrimination law. In the meantime, the four attackers will be sent to trial within 90 days.

Government forces dropped ten tonnes of explosives on a jungle base belonging to the left-wing guerrilla group FARC early Monday morning.

The attack, considered the largest offensive against FARC in ten years, occurred in the central Meta province near the town of El Silencio.

“[During a raid last week] 33 members of the FARC were discharged. Never before have so many FARC members been killed in an operation, 33 in the last operation, and 35 this week. So in one week the record was broken again,” said Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon.

According to Pinzon, three commanders died during ‘Operation Armageddon’, while five soldiers have been captured, including former commander of the 10^th front, Jaime Cotrino Díaz, alias ‘Arcesio Child’.

This is the second major operation on FARC camps in the last week, as troops raided another camp in Arauca, near the Venezuelan border.

So far in 2012, the military has killed 141 rebel fighters, of which 69 have died in the last week. These two recent operations are part of the government’s ‘Espada de Honor’ – or ‘Sword of Honour’ – strategy, aimed at dismantling the FARC’s structure.

President Juan Manuel Santos, described the operations as “[showing] that we will not stop fighting against these groups (…). I congratulate the Army, Air Force, Police and Navy because it was an operation fully coordinated. We will analyse the security situation in the province to improve conditions.”

The attack comes not long after the guerrilla group agreed to release ten hostages – an operation planned for April 2^nd and 4^th. The government insists the raid will not affect this scheduled release.

Earlier this month, FARC declared they are “banning the practice of kidnapping for ransom from our revolutionary practices,” in a move to start talks with Government officials. The group has notoriously funded their ‘struggle’ through kidnapping and participating in the drug trade. The government, although called this move “an important step,” refused to start peace talks until all arms have been laid down and all hostages rele

A young gay man brutally attacked by suspected neo-Nazis earlier this month has been left brain-dead, according to latest reports from doctors in Santiago, Chile.

Daniel Zamudio has been in intensive care in Santiago’s Central Hospital since March 6 when he was admitted for multiple injuries sustained in the attack. His condition turned critical on Saturday and, according to a spokesman for the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (MOVILH), could turn fatal within the next 48 hours.

The 24-year old was brutally assaulted by four youths who tore off part of his ear, branded his body with neo-Nazi symbols, dropped a heavy stone several times on his stomach and used his legs as a lever until his bones fractured.

The family lawyer, Jaime Silva, told reporters that if Daniel dies, his case will be considered a “homicidal attack.”

“The Chilean legal system is considering the case as one of the most serious and therefore sets the maximum penalty, life imprisonment, which results in 40 years in prison before the accused is permitted to apply for any type of benefit,” Silva stated on Radio DNA.

Roland Jiminez, the President of MOVILH said that “it is of the utmost gravity that Chile still has groups like these neo-Nazis acting with impunity, and this is the case, among other factors, because political groups and the Chilean state have not registered the real threat these groups pose.”

The sociologist Humberto Lagos commented on the prevalence of these attacks to BBC Mundo.

“These neo-Nazi groups do not arise spontaneously but obey a logic of Nazi behaviour, internationally and nationally, and in Chile and other countries they are trying to form political parties,” he warned.

Government officials have pushed through an anti-discrimination bill, pending approval by Congress, with the aim of preventing the recurrence of such incidents.

“The anti-discrimination law is being held as a matter of urgency,” the home secretary, Rodrigo Hinzpeter, stated earlier this month. “I think that the country should also consider legislation that sanctions, as many modern democracies, incitement to hatred.”

In Chile there are allegedly 30 neo-Nazi cells in operation; the gay and Jewish community are the principle targets under threat. Senator Lily Perez received death threats during her political campaign in 2009.

The man whose neck was slit during a Buenos Aires Pub Crawl event is recovering at home, according to a representative from the organization.

On Sunday night, a pub crawl staff member was attacked after an altercation. The assailants slit his throat and ran away.

After a social media push that provoked comments from hundreds of people, the pub crawl Facebook page has noted that they “found all of the information on these guys in record time.”

The representative said via phone that the victim is now doing “well,” but he said he had no other comment.

The pub crawl’s Facebook page said the victim had serious wounds to the neck.

“We are withholding the name for privacy reasons but he is aware of all of you rallying to his aid and is humbled and appreciative of your support and well wishes,” said a Facebook comment written by Buenos Aires Pub Crawl. “It has made a huge difference to him. He has been surrounded by our staff supporting him every step of the way.”

The Buenos Aires Pub Crawl Facebook page has today been inundated with comments, hoping to identify the man. A photo has been uploaded and widely shared, along with pleas for any information.

According to the Facebook page, a brawl began when another customer threw a glass of beer, which eventually resulted in the attack. Staff say that the alleged perpetrator is Argentine and that they have reported the incident to the police, but they are hoping that by using social networking they will identify him.

The Buenos Aires Pub Crawl company has asked anyone who may have any information to confidentially email info@pubcrawlBA.com.

The UN special mission is investigating a possible coup organised by Ecuadorian opposition parties in the chaotic events that happened on the 30^th of September 2010 in the capital city of Quito. During a protest, president Rafael Correa was hospitalised after being hit by tear gas, at least one person died and 250 were wounded.

Yesterday the special mission confirmed it was a “serious destabilisation of democracy”. Following the president’s request for further investigation in October last year, the UN is looking into the catalysts of the incident.

The special mission will look into versions from various political organisations, academia and “stakeholders in civil society”.

Members of the UN delegation will meet with Ecuadorian officials to evaluate whether there was an attempted coup, and send a report to the general secretary of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon.

The investigation will also cover previous complaints made by Ecuadorian media who claim there was an illegal concealment of information surrounding the event. Correa has criticised the media for worsening the situation at the time.

The Australian tourist, Emma Kelly, 23, who was attacked in El Bolsón and found four days later, has been reunited with her family.

Steve Kelly, the victim’s twin brother, told ABC that despite her ordeal she is “bubbly and making jokes,” and has maintained her positive outlook on life. He also said that she was soon to recover physically.

The man believed to be responsible for the attack was arrested and put into a line-up, but the victim was unable to identify him. Nevertheless, the man will remain in custody.

One of the head police officers in charge of the investigation, Walter Lucero, told reporters that Kelly had been chased for five kms, was beaten until losing consciousness, and dragged for metres until the perpetrator escaped. It is thought that the only reason why Kelly is alive is because the attacker believed her to be dead.

Travelling around South America, and a devout Christian, Emma Kelly was volunteering at a local Argentine church.

“I can’t express how incredibly BLESSED I feel to have such AMAZING friends and family!” she posted on her Facebook wall, reports The West Australian. “I love you all HEAPS and have plenty of hugs stored up for when I get back,” she wrote.