MIAMI, March 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazilian and US governments signed an agreement for development of defence projects that may give the South American country access to financing. The agreement allows partnerships in development of defence technology by private companies, that may use public financing from both countries. Companies may request financing…

National Electoral Council (CNE) President Tibisay Lucena CARACAS, March 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Venezuela’s elections council said that a fire over the weekend destroyed most of the voting machines stored in its main warehouse in the capital, Caracas, potentially complicating parliamentary elections scheduled for this year. Nearly 50,000 voting machines and…

WASHINGTON, March 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The number of confirmed UScoronavirus cases soared past 500 Sunday, including two further deaths, asPresident Donald Trump defended his administration’s “perfectly coordinated” response to the epidemic. The surge came as medics headed to a cruise ship off the California coastto prepare passengers for landfall, and…

A notice of limiting sales of face masks at a pharmacy in New York City NEW YORK, March 9 (NNN-Xinhua) — The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US state of New York surged to 105 on Sunday, or 16 more than the day before, according to New York…

SAO PAULO, March 9 (NNN-Xinhua) — Rescue workers found the body of a 37-year-old man under piles of earth and debris on Sunday, bringing the death toll from the mudslides in southeast Brazil’s Sao Paulo state to 42. Another 36 people remain missing since unusually heavy rains hit coastal towns…

GUADALAJARA (Mexico), March 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Nine people were killed in a bloody confrontation in western Mexico between a criminal gang and agents investigating a suspected kidnapping, officials said. The dead included two officers and six people believed to have been held captive in a house in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco state,…

US Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the government’s coronavirus task force WASHINGTON, March 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States is tracking a cruise ship that may have shared crew members with a ship carrying people who tested positive for COVID-19, Vice President Mike Pence said. “We are tracking at…

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro called on his backers to take to the streets next weekend to show their support for him, even as critics said such a demonstration would be anti-democratic. “This is not a movement against the Parliament or the judicial branch,…