South America

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 12 (NNN-CMA) – Brazil will have a record harvest of cereals, beans and oilseeds in 2023, reaching 302.1 million tonnes, 14.8 percent more than last year, the state-run Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reported, yesterday.

According to the Systematic Survey of Agricultural Production, released by IBGE, the area harvested this year with these products, will reach 76.4 million hectares, 4.3 percent more than in 2022.

Rice, soybeans and corn will account for 92.3 percent of the Brazilian harvest, and 87.3 percent of the planted area.

LIMA, May 11 (NNN-ANDINA) – All of the 27 miners trapped by a fire in a gold mine in southern Peru over the weekend, have died of carbon monoxide poisoning, local authorities confirmed.

Autopsies on the victims showed, they died from inhaling the poisonous gas, after the fire broke out on Saturday in Esperanza I mine, of the Yanaquihua mining company, in the province of Condesuyos, said the public prosecutor’s office, of the department of Arequipa.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru’s government will allow the extradition to the United States of the prime suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American student Natalee Holloway on the Dutch Caribbean Island of Aruba, bringing her family hope there will be justice in the case.

Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot will face trial on extortion and wire fraud charges, stemming from an accusation that he tried to extort the Holloway family after their daughter’s disappearance.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 10. /TASS/: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday that he plans to offer Brasilia's services as a mediator for settling the Ukrainian conflict on the sidelines of the G7 summit, which is slated to be held in Hiroshima, Japan, later this month.

QUITO, May 10 (NNN-XINHUA) — Ecuador’s National Assembly on Tuesday approved a resolution to continue an impeachment proceedings against Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso on embezzlement charges.

Under the resolution with the support of 88 of the 116 legislators present, Lasso and his opposition rivals will have to each testify to the assembly’s plenary, before facing a final vote that could result in his removal from office.

SANTIAGO, May 7 (Reuters) - Chile's government said that 115 Venezuelan migrants who had been stranded on the border with Peru were repatriated to Venezuela on a humanitarian flight Sunday.

Hundreds of migrants, mostly Venezuelans seeking to return home, had been stranded in the country's northern border after being denied entry into Peru. The incident sparked diplomatic tensions as Peru sent police and soldiers to the border to block migrants.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — After his swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 1, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva walked up the ramp to the presidential palace arm in arm with Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire, instantly recognizable by his yellow headdress and wooden lip plate.

BRASILIA, May 6 (NNN-CMA) – Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, yesterday urged the people to continue to get COVID-19 vaccines, though the World Health Organisation declared the COVID-19 pandemic no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

“Despite the end of the state of emergency, the pandemic is not over yet. Take the booster doses and make sure your vaccination schedule is always complete,” Lula tweeted.

BRASILIA, May 6 (NNN-CMA) – Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, yesterday urged the people to continue to get COVID-19 vaccines, though the World Health Organisation declared the COVID-19 pandemic no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

“Despite the end of the state of emergency, the pandemic is not over yet. Take the booster doses and make sure your vaccination schedule is always complete,” Lula tweeted.

MONTEVIDEO, May 5 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou said his country has a problem with prices in Argentine being so low due to a favorable exchange rate that people cross the border to do their shopping.

“We have a problem with Argentina because prices are extremely cheap,” Lacalle pointed out. “We have some problems in this regard in terms of competitiveness. Everyone, depending on the economist you talk to, will tell you how high the dollar should be, but it is true that we have a mismatch in that sense,” Lacalle stressed.