South America

LA PAZ, Sept 4 (NNN-TELESUR) — Bolivia’s Civil Defense Vice Minister Juan Calvimontes said that about 95 percent of the forest fires that started in the Beni and Santa Cruz departments on Aug 1 have been extinguished.

“Currently, there are only fires in San Matias municipality, in Santa Cruz department, where the Army and fire brigades remain to prevent fire from causing great havoc,” Calvimontes said, adding that all fires will be contained by next week.

CARACAS, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Ongoing talks between the Venezuelan government and the opposition group are an expression of the country's sovereignty and independence, Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) said as negotiations resumed Friday in Mexico.

"Dialogue, political understanding, peace, diversity and pluralism define these negotiations," the CNE said in a statement, noting that they are "essential values" of Venezuela's national life.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Some cities in Brazil are providing booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, even though most people have yet to receive their second jabs, in a sign of the concern in the country over the highly contagious delta variant.

Rio de Janeiro, currently Brazil’s epicenter for the variant and home to one of its largest elderly populations, began administering the boosters Wednesday. Northeastern cities Salvador and Sao Luis started on Monday, and the most populous city of Sao Paulo will begin Sept. 6. The rest of the nation will follow the next week.

LIMA, Aug 31 (NNN-ANDINA) – The number of people killed in Sunday’s collision of two vessels in the Huallaga River, in the northern Peruvian district of Yurimaguas, has risen to 14, Defence Minister, Walter Ayala, confirmed yesterday.

Twelve bodies were found in the river on Sunday, and two more bodies were retrieved on yesterday, the official told Canal N news channel.

LIMA, Aug 30 (NNN-ANDINA) – At least 11 people died and six others were injured, after two boats collided on the Huallaga River, in the Peruvian district of Yurimaguas, authorities said yesterday.

Meanwhile, an unknown number of passengers were missing, according to the Sectorial Emergency Operations Centre of the Ministry of Health.

The accident occurred at 4:20 local time early yesterday morning, when a barge, which had left with around 80 people onboard, from Santa Maria to Yurimaguas, was hit by a motorboat.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Armed robbers hit several banks in a small Brazilian city on Monday, using locals as human shields, leaving a trail of explosive devices and shooting at police in an assault that killed at least three people, a senior state security official said.

SANTIAGO, Aug 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Chilean Senate is debating a bill whether to make voting in national elections mandatory, a highly controversial issue since lawmakers of the ruling coalition are against the initiative while the opposition insists in approving it to increase the participation percentage.

A few Senators managed to establish their positions but finally the debate was suspended until the next session.

BRASILIA, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Brazilian far-right President Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday said he sees three alternatives for his future: winning the 2022 presidential elections, death or prison.

"I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory," he said, in remarks to a meeting of evangelical leaders. Bolsonaro later added that the first option is out of question. "No man on Earth will threaten me."

RIO DE JANEIRO, August 28. /TASS/: A Russian aircraft with humanitarian cargo landed in the quake-hit Haiti on Friday, Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov, the Russian ambassador to Venezuela and Haiti, told TASS.

"This humanitarian aid is provided within the frames of the WHO [the World Health Organization] project of the emergencies relief operations," he said.

Melik-Bagdasarov also said that another Russian aircraft carrying humanitarian cargo is expected in Haiti in a couple of days.

BRASILIA, Aug 27 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Brazilian health authorities announced the third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine will begin to be distributed during the second half of September 2021, for people over 70 years of age who have completed their full treatment more than six months ago.

The “booster doses” will be later made available to all people 28 days after their complete immunization cycle.