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by Francesco FONTEMAGGI Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, D.C., United States (AFP) – How far should Joe Biden go to limit soaring US gas prices? The US president has launched an oil diplomacy gambit to compensate for banning Russian petroleum, but he risks accusations of propping up authoritarian leaders and undermining his own battle for democracy. Amid the war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine, a recent American mission to energy-rich Caracas was intended to be discreet. And […]
ORAN, Argentina (AFP) — A retired Argentine bishop seen as close to Catholic Church’s Pope Francis was sentenced on Friday to four and a half years in prison for sexually abusing two seminarians. A court in the northwestern town of Oran, where Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta was bishop from 2013 to 2017, ordered his immediate detention. The 57-year-old Zanchetta, who had traveled from the Vatican for the trial, was convicted of “simple, continued and aggravated […]
by Paola LÓPEZ Agence France-Presse QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) – A headless body discarded in the street. Two corpses dangling from a bridge. An intensifying drug war has shocked once-peaceful Ecuador with scenes of horrific violence. Experts say the two crimes committed within a single week last month evoked the savage methods of Mexican narco gangs which, according to the government in Quito, has infiltrated the South American country of 17.7 million people. “The cruelty is […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — In rare backing for Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday assured Vladimir Putin of his “strong support” in a telephone call, according to a Kremlin statement. In the call initiated by Caracas, the Venezuelan leader also condemned “destabilizing actions of the United States and NATO” and spoke out against a Western campaign of “lies and disinformation,” it said. Dozens of people have been killed and […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — The death toll from torrential rains that triggered flash floods and landslides in the scenic Brazilian city of Petropolis has risen to 152, authorities said Sunday, as the pope sent his condolences. Rescue workers and residents searching for their missing relatives continued digging through mountains of mud and rubble in the southeastern city, which President Jair Bolsonaro said Friday looked like “scenes of war.” Police said 165 people remain […]
by Louis GENOT / Florian PLAUCHEUR Agence France Presse PETRÓPOLIS, Brazil (AFP) — Rescue workers raced against the clock Wednesday searching for any remaining survivors among mud and wreckage after devastating flash floods and landslides hit the picturesque Brazilian city of Petropolis, killing at least 94 people. Streets were turned into torrential rivers and houses swept away Tuesday when heavy storms dumped a month’s worth of rain in three hours on the scenic tourist town […]
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Landslides and flooding triggered by heavy rainfall killed at least 18 people Tuesday in a tourist town in the hills above Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian firefighters said. “So far, 18 deaths caused by landslides and floods have been confirmed” in recent hours, the Rio de Janeiro Fire Department said in a statement. It said more than 180 firefighters and other rescue workers were at the scene in the picturesque […]
LIMA, PERU, At least 20 people, including a four-year-old girl, died and another 30 were injured when a bus crashed off a road into a ravine in northern Peru, authorities said Thursday. The bus rolled down a 100-meter (328-foot) slope in the remote northern Libertad region on Wednesday afternoon, the local government said. News of the crash took hours to filter out due to the remoteness of the region. The bus was traveling from Tayabamba […]
by Hervé BAR, with Diego LEGRAND Agence France-Presse BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) – Far from their ancestral homes, more than 1,000 indigenous people displaced by conflict have been squatting in squalor since September in one of the Colombian capital’s most emblematic parks. “We want rights and dignified conditions… food and security,” said Luz Mary Queragama, one of the group’s representatives. There are around 550 children among about 1,300 people camping in the National Park that sits […]
January of this year was the hottest month in the Colombian Amazon in a decade, leading to an increase in forest fires in the southeastern region and very likely impacting air quality in the capital Bogota, according to an Environment Ministry report seen by AFP Friday. It said the month of January recorded the “highest hot spot values in the last 10 years” in the Colombian Amazon. The phenomenon occurs, the ministry said, when the […]
by Santiago PIEDRA SILVA QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) — The heaviest flooding to hit Ecuador in two decades has killed at least 22 people in Quito, inundating homes, swamping cars and sweeping away athletes and spectators on a sports field, officials said Tuesday. Twenty people are missing and 47 injured, Ecuador’s SNGRE emergency service said on Twitter. Video footage showed torrents of water carrying stones, mud and debris down streets in the Ecuadoran capital, as rescuers […]
QUITO, Ecuador (AFP) – At least 11 people were killed and 32 injured on Monday after the heaviest flooding to hit Ecuador in nearly two decades triggered a massive landslide in capital Quito, authorities said. Torrents of water carrying stones and mud swept down an avenue in the Ecuadorian city, washing away cars and flooding houses and streets, according to images released by the emergency services. The torrential downpour caused a water collection structure to […]
