MercoPress https://en.mercopress.com/ South Atlantic News Agency en Copyright 2026, MercoPress. https://en.mercopress.com/web/img/en/mercopress-logo.gif MercoPress http://en.mercopress.com/ <![CDATA[British Antarctic Survey confirms Antarctica's first dinosaur fossil, 40 years on]]> The fossil was collected in December 1985 by geologist Mike Thomson, of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), during an expedition to James Ross Island, on the Antarctic Peninsula A bone collected in Antarctica four decades ago has been identified as the first dinosaur fossil found on the continent, according to a study published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. It is a tail vertebra from a titanosaur, the group of long-necked sauropods that includes the largest land animals that ever lived.

]]> Fri, 10 Jul 2026 18:51:00 GMT <![CDATA[PAHO warns Venezuela quake health emergency has entered critical phase]]> Photo: Maxwell Briceno / REUTERS The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned on Thursday that the health emergency stemming from the earthquakes that struck north-central Venezuela on June 24 has entered a critical stage and is "far from over," with the focus on preventing disease outbreaks among the displaced population. According to the official toll cited by the organization, as of July 8 the quakes had left 3,811 people dead and 16,740 injured.

]]> Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:55:00 GMT <![CDATA[Venezuela's quake toll passes 2,295 a week on, with tens of thousands still unaccounted for]]> Search efforts continued in the coastal state of La Guaira, the hardest hit, where most of the victims are concentrated A week after the twin earthquake that struck north-central Venezuela, the official toll rose to at least 2,295 dead and 11,267 injured, according to National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, who has been the main voice for the figures since the disaster. The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in the country, Gianluca Rampolla, warned that the number "will keep growing" as rescue and debris-removal work advances.

]]> Thu, 02 Jul 2026 08:51:00 GMT <![CDATA[Collapsed hospitals and morgues raise health fears in Venezuela's earthquake zone]]> Authorities have restricted access to La Guaira to ease the entry of heavy machinery and specialized teams The emergency caused by the twin earthquake that struck north-central Venezuela on Wednesday is beginning to turn into a health risk, given the bodies that remain under the rubble and the collapse of hospitals and morgues in the worst-hit areas, particularly the coastal state of La Guaira. Authorities this weekend raised the toll to at least 1,450 dead and some 3,150 injured, a figure they warned would keep rising.

]]> Sun, 28 Jun 2026 20:31:00 GMT <![CDATA[Brazil suspends its dengue vaccine as a precaution after two deaths]]> The vaccine was approved by the regulatory agency ANVISA in late 2025 for people aged 12 to 59, and the campaign began in February with health personnel Brazil temporarily suspended the dengue vaccination campaign it began in January, after detecting two deaths and several cases of serious adverse reactions. The vaccine, the world's first single-dose shot, was developed by the Butantan Institute in São Paulo and had already been given to half a million people through the public health system. Health authorities stressed that there is not yet enough data to link the deaths to the product and that the interruption is a preventive measure.

]]> Tue, 09 Jun 2026 07:43:00 GMT <![CDATA[Submarine Force Advisory Council flagged ARA San Juan concerns seven months before its sinking]]> Minutes of the Argentine Submarine Force Advisory Council signed by fourteen navy captains on 30 April 2017, seven months before the implosion of the ARA San Juan in the South Atlantic, have become central evidence in the ongoing oral trial before the Federal Oral Court of Santa Cruz, based in Río Gallegos. The document, cited by the Argentine outlet Infobae, details the technical issues outstanding and the operational restrictions affecting the submarine before its final mission, and constitutes one of the central elements of the debate over the eventual criminal responsibility of the four former senior naval commanders charged in the case.

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 21:35:00 GMT <![CDATA[WHO warns of "magnitude and speed" of Ebola outbreak in Congo with 131 deaths and cases in Uganda]]> The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, an Ebola species for which no approved vaccines or treatments exist The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Tuesday before the World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva that "the magnitude and speed" with which the Ebola outbreak is spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are alarming, with more than 543 suspected cases, 131 deaths linked to transmission, and 33 laboratory-confirmed infections. Two further cases have been confirmed in neighboring Uganda, both involving Congolese citizens who had crossed the border, one of whom has died. The WHO director convened the organization's Emergency Committee to formulate containment recommendations.

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 18:53:00 GMT <![CDATA[Labs across three continents confirm passenger-to-passenger spread on hantavirus cruise]]> Hantavirus shows a reduced capacity to mutate compared with other pathogens such as influenza or coronaviruses A comparative genomic analysis of five people infected aboard the polar cruise ship MV Hondius has confirmed that the hantavirus spread from passenger to passenger during the voyage, according to a study published on the open scientific platform Viriological and produced jointly by laboratories in South Africa, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The scientific finding supports the hypothesis handled since the outbreak began, which has left ten people infected and three dead, and completes the epidemiological picture after weeks of investigation.

]]> Tue, 12 May 2026 02:27:00 GMT <![CDATA[British paratroopers drop onto Tristan da Cunha to treat suspected hantavirus case]]> 3.3 tonnes of medical equipment were airdropped in three batches, including bottled oxygen, the island's supplies of which had fallen to critical levels A British military team parachuted onto Tristan da Cunha on Saturday, the United Kingdom's most remote overseas territory, to assist a British national suspected of contracting hantavirus, in the first humanitarian operation of its kind carried out by the British Armed Forces. The island, home to 221 residents, has no airstrip and is normally accessible only by sea.

]]> Sun, 10 May 2026 17:08:00 GMT <![CDATA[Tenerife braces for race-against-time operation to evacuate 140 from MV Hondius]]> The operational window is narrow. Canary Islands government spokesman Alfonso Cabello warned that the evacuation must be completed between Sunday and Monday Spain faces a complex international operation in Tenerife on Sunday to evacuate the passengers and crew of the cruise ship MV Hondius, struck by a hantavirus outbreak that has left three dead and five laboratory-confirmed cases among the eight identified by the World Health Organization. The Dutch-flagged vessel, carrying more than 140 people and one body still on board, will anchor off the port of Granadilla between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m. local time.

]]> Sat, 09 May 2026 06:43:00 GMT