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More than two thousand students from the school “Antonio Varas” in the town of Cauquenes, which was the epicenter of February’s mega 8.8 earthquake in the Maule Region, were the beneficiaries of a new school courtesy of the Campaign Chile Helps Chile (Chile Ayuda Chile), run by the Teleton Foundation. The new school was inaugurated on Tuesday by Minister of Education Joaquin Lavin, and actor Mario Kreutzberger who is known to many as Don Fransisco.
This is one of five educational institutions in the country to be rebuilt by the Schools for Chile project (Escuelas para Chile) and is located in the former Cauquenes military installation.
The Minister of Education Joaquin Lavin said, “Without the help of Don Fransisco and the Teleton, this school could never have been put up as fast as it was,”
The Teleton campaign, which started within days after the earthquake, gathered 45 billion pesos, with 15 billion pesos being allocated to a Roof for Chile and the rest for the education sector.
Mario Kreutzberger, campaign leader, said the school is “well above my expectations.”
The ‘Antonio Varas’ school was founded in 1834 and is the fifth oldest in Chile. Following the earthquake the old four floor school and almost all of its facilities were destroyed.
The 33 men trapped in the San Jose mine have now spent the longest amount of time in recent history trapped alive in a collapsed mine. Experiencing their 27th day underground, they have exceeded the 25 days experienced by three men trapped in a flooded mine in China last year.
Rescue efforts are expected take three to four months, with drilling into the rock having begun on Tuesday. The Australian drill, named San Lorenzo after the patron saint of mining, will drill a hole 66 inches in diameter and 668 meters deep.
Two other probes are also being used in the rescue effort as backup, in case there are problems with San Lorenzo.
It is thought the extraction of the men could take as long as five days, with each man having to be raised from the mine individually in a process that will take a minimum of two hours. A rescue worker will have to be lowered into the mine to assist in the evacuation of the miners.
NASA experts, who arrived in Chile on Sunday, have advised against informing the miners of a definite rescue date. Michael Duncan, NASA’s deputy chief medical officer, explained that they take the same approach with astronauts, preferring that they do not concentrate on the specific date.
The Chamber of Deputies announced yesterday that Congress has approved a new law for Chilean radio stations which states that a fifth of the music played must be Chilean.
The proposal, which was passed with 51 votes in favour and 28 against, with 20 abstentions, means that for every five songs played on a Chilean radio station, at least one must be by a Chilean band or soloist. It has been confirmed that drafts for the law are already being written and will become effective once being approved by the Senate.
Fines for stations not following the law could be as high as 50 UF, and repeat offenses could see fines increase.
The proposal has sparked a huge discussion on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook over the past two weeks, with many in favor of the law.
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