The Latest Breaking News from Santiago

Santiago (AFP) - Two same-sex couples became the first Thursday to legally tie the knot in Chile, which joined a handful of countries in majority Catholic Latin America to allow LGBTQ couples to marry.

Chile's Javier Silva and Jaime Nazar became the first two men to tie the knot in the South American country's history on Thursday after a law allowing same-sex marriage went into effect.

In Barrio Yungay, an edgy central Santiago neighborhood, an artist-owned sourdough bakery rubs shoulders with the Chilean city's oldest barbershop and a mini-market with a flickering back light that sells vegetables, dairy products and snacks.

Biden says US and allies have ‘raised the costs’ on Russia over its aggression, as credit card giants Visa and Mastercard halt Russian business operations

The lights at Chile’s former congress building in downtown Santiago almost never go off these days as delegates to the Constitutional Convention, thick dossiers under their arms, shuttle wearily between debates that can last 12 hours. During brief breaks, they confer about complex resolutions. Votes come fast and furious.

Chile's constituent assembly began formally debating on Tuesday motions for a new Constitution to replace a market-focused one dating back to the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, a text that could reshape the world's top copper-producing nation.

Many people have a dream of one day being immortalised forever in a Google Maps snapshot, but in the Chilean capital of Santiago, that dream came true for a giant rubber duck.