South America

LIMA, Aug 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Peru and Colombia proposed an emergency Amazon summit for countries in the region in order to coordinate a strategy to protect the vast rainforest currently blighted by numerous fires.

The Amazon is known as the “planet’s lungs” but is suffering from its worst outbreak of fires in years, which has sparked a global outcry.

SAO PAULO (Brazil), Aug 29 (NNN-XINHUA) — Brazil will keep developing its agribusiness sector with lower usage of water and land to maintain production sustainability, Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias said.

“Brazil is a powerhouse in food production, but also a power in environmental protection. We make everything we produce sustainable,” the minister said during an agribusiness event in Sao Paulo.

CARACAS, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he has proposed creating a "permanent negotiating table" between the ruling socialist party and the U.S.-backed opposition.

"I have proposed creating a permanent mechanism for dialogue, a permanent negotiation table, which is capable of withstanding any storm, any difficulty, any situation -- dialogue, dialogue for peace," Maduro said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Maduro said he has also proposed that the two sides discuss the main problems facing Venezuela and "seek agreed-on, shared solutions."

PORTO VELHO, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Wednesday that Latin America’s Amazon countries will meet in September to discuss both protecting and developing the rainforest region, which has been hit by weeks of devastating fires.

The Brazilian leader also escalated a deeply personal dispute with French President Emmanuel Macron, accusing him of portraying himself as “the one and only person” concerned about the environment.

ALTAMIRA, Brazil (AP) — As fires raged in parts of the Amazon, Mydje Kayapo sat in a small boat looking out over the Curua River in the Bau indigenous reserve. The smell of smoke filled the air, and Kayapo was worried.

“The fire is coming closer and closer to our reserve,” he told a visiting news team from The Associated Press. “Now it is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) away.”

28 August 2019; AFP: Archeologists in Peru say the 227 bodies they have unearthed from a site used by the pre-Columbian Chimu culture is the biggest-ever discovery of sacrificed children.

Archeologists have been digging since last year at the huge sacrificial site in Huanchaco, a beachside tourist town north of the capital Lima.

"This is the biggest site where the remains of sacrificed children have been found," chief archeologist Feren Castillo told AFP on Tuesday.

PORTO VELHO, Brazil (AP) — Lingering smoke in the Amazon caused concern Tuesday among Brazilians who say that respiratory problems — particularly among children and the elderly — have increased as fires in the region rage.

“The kids are affected the most. They’re coughing a lot,” said Elane Diaz, a nurse in the Rondonia state capital of Porto Velho, as she waited for a doctor’s appointment at the city’s 9 of August hospital with her 5-year-old-son Eduardo. “They have problems breathing. I’m concerned because it affects their health.”

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday he wants French President Emmanuel Macron to retract “insults” against him before he will countenance accepting an offer of $20 million from the Group of Seven nations to fight forest fires in the Amazon.

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 27 (NNN-XINHUA) — A federal court of Argentina on Monday rejected 51 requests to suspend or throw out charges of corruption against the country’s ex-president and current Senator Cristina Fernandez, and put her on trial, Xinhua news agency reported.

Fernandez and 12 others were accused of illicit enrichment in granting public works contracts.

“Postponing (the trial) delays justice without justification,” the court said in its ruling.

Monday’s hearing was the tenth in a legal process against the former head of state that began on May 21.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Brazil on Monday turned down aid from the Group of Seven (G7) member states to fight the ongoing devastating wildfires in the Amazon rainforest.

The countries made the 20-million-U.S.-dollar aid offer at the G7 summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in the French seaside resort of Biarritz. Macron proposed that the member countries take part in fighting the fire.