South America

BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Argentina's former Vice President Amado Boudou was sentenced on Tuesday to five years and 10 months in prison for "bribery and business dealings incompatible with public service."

Boudou, who served from 2011 to 2015 alongside then President Cristina Fernandez, was also barred for life from holding public office and fined 90,000 pesos (3,214 U.S. dollars).

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. /TASS/. Bolivian President Evo Morales has accused the United States of plotting a military intervention against Venezuela and seeking support from Latin American leaders for these ends.

"Within the last 12 months, US Vice President Mike Pence made 3 trips to Latin America to meet at least 8 presidents from whom he demanded support for a military intervention against our brother president of Venezuela Nicol·s Maduro. Those are the Empire's coup attempts<" he wrote on his Twitter account.

TASS, August 5. First results of the probe into the attempt on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s life indicate that the United States and Colombia were behind it, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Sunday.

"The investigation indicates that [US state of] Florida and [Colombian capital city] Bogota were the places where the plot was conspired," the Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information (Minci) said on its Twitter account, citing Arreaza.

TASS, August 5. President of the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly Diosdado Cabello tweeted on Saturday that the attempted murder of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was organized by the right political forces.

"The right-wing compatriots insist on violence to occupy the positions which [they] failed to gain through elections. Our brother President Nicolas Maduro and the supreme political and military command came to no harm in the terror attack. They won’t overcome us," Cabello stated.

TASS, August 5. The explosions in Caracas were an attempt of the US and its regional allies to eliminate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bolivian President Evo Morales tweeted on Saturday.

"We resolutely denounce another bout of violence and a cowardly assault on fraternal President Nicolas Maduro and the Bolivarian people. After the failed attempts to remove him from power by democratic, economic and military ways the empire (the US - TASS) and its lackeys are attempting his life," Morales said.

5 Aug 2018; AFP; Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro escaped an "attack" Saturday when multiple drones carrying explosives detonated near him as he gave a speech at a military ceremony Saturday, his government said, adding seven soldiers were wounded.

"This is an attack against President Nicolas Maduro," Communication Minister Jorge Rodriguez said following the incident that was caught during a live broadcast.

4 Aug 2018; AFP; Even behind bars, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will secure his leftist party's nomination Saturday and continue to overshadow more likely candidates in the country's most unpredictable presidential election for decades.

Saturday will see three big party conventions, two months before the first round of voting on October 7 in Latin America's dominant economy.

Professor Akshay Venkatesh has won this year's Fields Medal, an award often described as the Nobel Prize of mathematics.

The 36-year-old professor grew up in Perth then moved to US and works at Stanford University. He specialises in pure mathematics and number theory.  He was among four mathematicians from around the world to be awarded this year's Fields Medal.

1 Aug 2018; AFP; Under-fire Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro admitted his economic model has "failed" in the wake of food and medicine shortages and public service paralysis, such as Tuesday's power failure that affected 80 percent of Caracas.

"The production models we've tried so far have failed and the responsibility is ours, mine and yours," Maduro told his ruling PSUV party congress, as Venezuela looks to tackle chronic inflation the International Monetary Fund predicted would reach one million percent this year.

SANTIAGO, July 27 (NNN-XINHUA) -- Using Chinese technology, a Chilean company has succeeded in making "non-plastic" bags that quickly dissolve in cold water and won't take hundreds of years to disintegrate.

The cost-effective formula combines hydrogen, carbon and a synthetic polymer, which doesn't cause pollution to produce a grocery bag, according to the company Solubag.