South America

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Black-and-white pictures of dozens of men and women, some in their 30s and others much older, line the perimeter of a bright yellow building overlooking the Pacific, a two-story-tall black ribbon covering part of the facade and a Peruvian flag at a half-staff near the door.

The makeshift memorial is for fallen “pandemic soldiers” — doctors who have died since the coronavirus struck this South American nation last year and unraveled the public health care system.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is promoting a “miracle” medication that he said neutralizes COVID-19 with no side effects, a claim doctors said was not backed by science.

Maduro on Sunday presented the drug Carvativir, an oral solution he said was tested on patients in a Caracas hospital and a sports center used as an emergency medical facility.

BRASILIA, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Mass vaccination against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is key to resuming economic growth, Brazil's Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said Monday.

Commenting on tax collection in 2020, which presented a real drop of 6.91 percent, Guedes stressed immunization will lead to the normalization of economic activities.

"The safe return to work is important, and mass vaccination is decisive. It is a critical success factor for the good performance of the economy," he said.

CARACAS, Jan 25 (NNN-TELESUR) — Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro denounced a terrorist attack aimed at disrupting gas supplies in the northern department of Anzoategui.

Maduro informed that the sabotage was carried out by unknown individuals in a gas pipeline section of the Anaco-Jose Industrial Complex.

The terrorist attack caused a massive fire controlled by the pipeline’s workers, who managed to close the valves to prevent a leak.

Although no human deaths were reported, two people were injured with minor burns treated at Jose Complex’s Industrial Clinic.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Thousands of Brazilians took the streets for a second day Sunday to call for the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under fire for his government’s handling of COVID-19, which has raged through the country and claimed more than 216,000 lives.

Horn-honking cars paraded through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and a dozen or more other cities as other protesters marched on foot, some calling, “Get out Bolsonaro!”

SANTIAGO, Jan 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck Saturday off the coast of Antarctica triggered a tsunami warning but panic ensued when a message to abandon coastal areas was sent to a large number of Chileans, some of whom experienced a separate, less dangerous temblor.

The shallow Antarctic quake struck at 8:36 pm (2336 GMT) in the sea east of Chile’s Eduardo Frei base, the country’s National Emergency Office (Onemi) said, prompting the agency to urge evacuation from “the beach area of the Antarctic” ahead of a possible tsunami.

CARACAS, Jan 24 (NNN-TELESUR) — The Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza announced that his country will send oxygen tanks to the Brazilian city Manaus every week.

“We are establishing an agreement so that 80,000 more kilos, five gondolas, can arrive every seven days in Manaus (Brazil),” Arreaza said during a televised interview.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration will work closely with Israel on regional security issues and to build on the country’s regional normalization agreements, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told his Israeli counterpart, according to a statement on Sunday.

“They discussed opportunities to enhance the partnership over the coming months, including by building on the success of Israel’s normalization arrangements with UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco,” according to a statement on Sullivan’s call on Saturday with Israel’s Meir Ben Shabbat.

MANAUS (Brazil), Jan 20 (NNN-TELESUR) — Authorities confirm the arrival of five trucks with oxygen in the capital of the Brazilian Amazon, Manaus, to attend to the sanitary crisis that the territory is suffering due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The population welcomed the trucks with Venezuelan flags amidst applause. The shipment will be able to alleviate the dramatic situation suffered by the hospital network in Manaus.

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 18 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Argentina confirmed the first case in the country of a new coronavirus variant that was first identified in Britain and appears to be more contagious.

The new variant was detected in a traveler who arrived asymptomatic in Argentina from Germany at the end of December 2020, Argentina’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Roberto Salvarezza wrote on Twitter.