South America

(AP) --- Last summer, two U.S. officials ventured into hostile territory for a secret high-stakes meeting with American adversaries.

The Syrian government officials they were scheduled to meet in Damascus seemed ready to discuss the fate of U.S. hostages believed held in their country, including Austin Tice, a journalist captured eight years earlier. The release of the Americans would be a boon to President Donald Trump months ahead of the election. And a breakthrough seemed possible.

SANTIAGO, April 3 (Xinhua) -- The Chilean Ministry of Health announced on Saturday that it will strengthen the search for new variants of COVID-19, with the genomic sequencing of 500 samples a week to investigate the cause of the new wave of infections that is affecting the country.

"So far, the Brazilian and the British variants have been detected in Chile. We were doing 176 sequences a week and, for next week, we are going to sequence 500 samples to try to search for any new or strange strains that may explain the increase in cases," said Minister of Health Enrique Paris.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President Alberto Fernandez has tested positive for the new coronavirus, is waiting for the result to be confirmed and is in good spirits despite having a light fever, the first-term Peronist leader tweeted on Saturday.

“I am in good physical condition,” the president, who turned 62 on Friday, said in a tweet. He had received Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus early this year.

SAO PAULO, April 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil’s biggest city sped up efforts to empty old graves, making room for a soaring number of COVID-19 deaths as Sao Paulo city hall registered record daily burials this week.

Gravediggers in the Vila Nova Cachoeirinha cemetery in the city’s northern reaches worked in white hazmat suits to open the tombs of people buried years ago, bagging decomposed remains for removal to another location.

SANTIAGO, March 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Chile’s president Sebastian Pinera said that his government had signed a new deal with CanSino Biologics for its one-dose coronavirus vaccine as the South American nation vaults ahead with one of the world’s fastest inoculation drives.

Pinera said in a televised statement that Cansino had agreed to deliver 1.8 million doses of the vaccine in May and June.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The leaders of all three branches of Brazil’s armed forces jointly resigned Tuesday following President Jair Bolsonaro’s replacement of the defense minister, causing widespread apprehension of a military shakeup to serve the president’s political interests.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil currently accounts for one-quarter of the entire world’s daily COVID-19 deaths, far more than any other single nation, and health experts are warning that the nation is on the verge of even greater calamity.

The nation’s seven-day average of 2,400 deaths stands to reach to 3,000 within weeks, six experts told the Associated Press. That’s nearly the worst level seen by the U.S., though Brazil has two-thirds its population. Spikes of daily deaths could soon hit 4,000; on Friday there were 3,650.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil topped 300,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, becoming the second country to do so amid a spike in infections that has seen the South American country report record death tolls in recent days.

The United States reached the grim milestone on Dec. 14, but has a larger population than Brazil.

On Wednesday, Brazil’s health ministry reported 2,009 daily COVID-19 deaths, bringing its pandemic total to 300,685. On Tuesday, the country saw a single-day record of 3,251 deaths.

LIMA, March 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Despite facing a potential 30-year prison sentence for corruption, Keiko Fujimori is determined to follow in her father’s footsteps and claim Peru’s presidency at the third attempt.

The 45-year-old, who failed already in 2011 and 2016, says she wants to “save Peruvians from death and hunger” if successful this time around in the April 11 general election.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil reported more than 3,000 COVID-19 deaths in a single day for the first time Tuesday amid calls for the government and the new health minister to take action to stem the nation’s resurgence of coronavirus infections.

In recent weeks, Latin America’s largest country has become the pandemic’s global epicenter, with more deaths from the virus each day than in any other nation. Tuesday’s record toll of 3,251 deaths was driven by the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous, which recorded 1,021 new deaths, far above the previous high of 713 last July.