South America

BRASILIA, Oct 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 59 percent in September compared to the same month last year, official data showed, confirming a positive trend that began after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to power this year.

However, it hit new highs in the tropical savannah region known as the Cerrado, south of the Amazon, which has been hit by incursions from farming companies.

WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden offered Israel on Saturday "all appropriate means of support" after a deadly attack from Palestinian militant group Hamas and warned "any other party hostile to Israel" not to seek advantage.

The attack from the Iran-backed Islamist group erupted amid efforts by Biden and his team to negotiate a landmark normalization agreement between foes Israel and Saudi Arabia and a U.S.-Saudi defense pact.

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Six Colombians arrested as the alleged assassins of a candidate in Ecuador’s August presidential election were slain Friday inside a prison in Guayaquil, officials announced, without providing details on what happened.

The prison authority said only that six prisoners killed inside Litoral Penitentiary were the men “charged with the murder of former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.” It identified them as Jhon Gregore R., Andrés Manuel M., Adey Fernando G., Camilo Andrés R., Sules Osmini C. and José Neyder L.

CARACAS, Oct 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Venezuelan prosecutor’s office said it had issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Juan Guaido, the first time it had taken such a step, and would ask for Interpol’s help in his apprehension.

Prosecutors were appointed “to issue an arrest warrant against him and to request a Red Notice from Interpol so that he pays for his crimes,” Prosecutor Tarek William Saab said.

QUITO, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador's National Electoral Council (CNE) began Thursday the nationwide distribution of 2,413 electoral packages for the second round of the early presidential elections in October.

"Each package contains ballots, electoral documents, ballot boxes, pens, markers, tape, fingerprinting pads and wax, stamps, LED flashlights, calculators, security items and electoral envelopes, among others," the CNE detailed in a press release.

ASUNCION, Sept 27 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Paraguayan President Santiago Peña insisted that if the trade deal between Mercosur and the European Union is not operational by Dec 6 there would be no agreement at all after he takes over the South American Common Market (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) bloc’s pro-tempore presidency.

“I have said and I have transmitted this to President [Luiz Inácio] Lula [da Silva] to close the negotiation because if he does not close, I am not going to continue in the next semester,” Peña told the Financial Times at his residence in Asunción.

LA PAZ, Sept 25 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Citing a “dirty” campaign against him, former Bolivian President Evo Morales announced during the weekend that he would run again in the 2025 elections.

His Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party, the same as current head of state Luis Arce Catacora claims Morales is the “king of cocaine” while the opposition regards him as a “drug trafficker,” according to local media.

Evo Morales assured that he was “forced” to make this decision for which he will “fight”, amid the division within the ruling party, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS).

Sept 21 (Reuters) - A close aide to Jair Bolsonaro told police the former Brazilian president and senior military officers met last year to discuss a military intervention to overturn the result of the election after he lost, newspaper O Globo and news website UOL reported on Thursday.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Soon after she learned what happened, Helmut Kramer’s mother grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the priest out of photographs from her son’s baptism.

“She kept the photos after that,” said Kramer, who was sexually abused at age 12 in a Jesuit school in Antofagasta, a city in northern Chile.

“My mom is still Catholic, but she never attended Mass again. She says that she will never set foot in a church, and she does not trust the pope or any priest,” the 53-year-old Chilean said.