South America

CARACAS, Jan 25 (NNN-TELESUR) — Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro denounced a terrorist attack aimed at disrupting gas supplies in the northern department of Anzoategui.

Maduro informed that the sabotage was carried out by unknown individuals in a gas pipeline section of the Anaco-Jose Industrial Complex.

The terrorist attack caused a massive fire controlled by the pipeline’s workers, who managed to close the valves to prevent a leak.

Although no human deaths were reported, two people were injured with minor burns treated at Jose Complex’s Industrial Clinic.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Thousands of Brazilians took the streets for a second day Sunday to call for the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under fire for his government’s handling of COVID-19, which has raged through the country and claimed more than 216,000 lives.

Horn-honking cars paraded through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and a dozen or more other cities as other protesters marched on foot, some calling, “Get out Bolsonaro!”

SANTIAGO, Jan 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck Saturday off the coast of Antarctica triggered a tsunami warning but panic ensued when a message to abandon coastal areas was sent to a large number of Chileans, some of whom experienced a separate, less dangerous temblor.

The shallow Antarctic quake struck at 8:36 pm (2336 GMT) in the sea east of Chile’s Eduardo Frei base, the country’s National Emergency Office (Onemi) said, prompting the agency to urge evacuation from “the beach area of the Antarctic” ahead of a possible tsunami.

CARACAS, Jan 24 (NNN-TELESUR) — The Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza announced that his country will send oxygen tanks to the Brazilian city Manaus every week.

“We are establishing an agreement so that 80,000 more kilos, five gondolas, can arrive every seven days in Manaus (Brazil),” Arreaza said during a televised interview.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration will work closely with Israel on regional security issues and to build on the country’s regional normalization agreements, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told his Israeli counterpart, according to a statement on Sunday.

“They discussed opportunities to enhance the partnership over the coming months, including by building on the success of Israel’s normalization arrangements with UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco,” according to a statement on Sullivan’s call on Saturday with Israel’s Meir Ben Shabbat.

MANAUS (Brazil), Jan 20 (NNN-TELESUR) — Authorities confirm the arrival of five trucks with oxygen in the capital of the Brazilian Amazon, Manaus, to attend to the sanitary crisis that the territory is suffering due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The population welcomed the trucks with Venezuelan flags amidst applause. The shipment will be able to alleviate the dramatic situation suffered by the hospital network in Manaus.

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 18 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Argentina confirmed the first case in the country of a new coronavirus variant that was first identified in Britain and appears to be more contagious.

The new variant was detected in a traveler who arrived asymptomatic in Argentina from Germany at the end of December 2020, Argentina’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Roberto Salvarezza wrote on Twitter.

SAO PAULO, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) unanimously approved on Sunday the emergency use of the CoronaVac vaccine, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, as well as the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine against COVID-19.

The decision will allow the Brazilian government to start its vaccination plan against COVID-19 with 6 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine, developed by Sinovac in conjunction with the Butantan Institute of Sao Paulo.

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s health regulator is seeking further data on Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine before considering its approval for emergency use.

Documents supporting drugmaker Uniao Quimica’s application for emergency use of the vaccine have been returned to the company because they did not meet its minimum criteria, the watchdog said on Saturday.

In a statement on the Health Ministry’s website, regulator Anvisa said the request failed to provide adequate assurances on Phase III clinical trials and issues related to the manufacture of the vaccine.

CARACAS, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Venezuelan government rejected a recent decision by a U.S. judge, which authorized the sale of shares of Citgo, a subsidiary of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), calling it "procedural fraud."

"Venezuela denounces and deeply rejects the actions of the government of Donald Trump, in complicity with a stronghold of Venezuelan extremists who, acting in collusion, have committed transnational crimes in order to appropriate assets from Venezuela and its entities throughout the world," the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.