Brazil’s Itau Unibanco first-quarter net profit up 14.6%

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Itau Unibanco Holding SA, Brazil’s biggest private bank, reported on Monday first-quarter recurring net profit up 14.6% year-on-year, boosted by a larger loan portfolio with better spreads even as provisions for bad loans increased. The bottom line of 8.44 billion reais ($1.7 billion) was broadly in line with expectations of 8.42 billion…

Read More

Chile right-wing parties win majority in vote to draft new constitution

SANTIAGO (Reuters) -Chilean right-wing parties won a majority of votes on Sunday to elect advisers to draft a new constitution, marking a sharp shift from a progressive majority that drafted a failed first constitutional rewrite. With 95.13% of ballots tallied, Chile’s Republican Party, led by former conservative firebrand presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast, secured nearly…

Read More

Migrants stranded on Chile-Peru border repatriated to Venezuela

SANTIAGO (Reuters) -Chile’s government said that 115 Venezuelan migrants who had been stranded on the border with Peru were repatriated to Venezuela on a humanitarian flight Sunday. Hundreds of migrants, mostly Venezuelans seeking to return home, had been stranded in the country’s northern border after being denied entry into Peru. The incident sparked diplomatic tensions…

Read More

No harmful chemical levels in air after Shell Texas chemical plant fire, company says

(Reuters) – Air monitoring around an extinguished fire at the Shell Plc’s chemical plant in Deer Park, Texas, showed no harmful levels of chemicals in the air, the company said on Saturday, added that there was no threat to the surrounding community. The fire broke out shortly before 3 p.m. CDT (2000 GMT) on Friday…

Read More

U.S. to finalize rule to limit asylum access at Mexico border by May 11

By Ted Hesson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. will finalize by May 11 a new regulation that will deny asylum to many migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, the same day sweeping COVID-19 restrictions at the border are set to end, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Friday. Under the new regulation, migrants will…

Read More

Paraguay president-elect commits to ‘strengthen’ ties with Taiwan

Paraguay’s president-elect, Santiago Pena, said on Friday that he would continue to strengthen his country’s “historic ties” with Taiwan following a call with his counterpart there after winning Sunday’s election. The countries’ diplomatic relations of more than six decades had been in the spotlight before Sunday’s election, with opposition candidate Efrain Alegre telling Reuters he…

Read More

Venezuelan opposition party replaces Guaido as candidate

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition party Voluntad Popular on Friday named a new candidate for a key presidential primary in October, replacing formerly anti-government leader Juan Guaido who left Venezuela unexpectedly in late April. At a news conference, Voluntad Popular named political coordinator Freddy Superlano, a 46-year-old engineer and critic of President Nicolas Maduro, as…

Read More