Venezuela sets up 'CNN rival'

Caracas deports Colombia 'rebels'
Venezuela has deported three suspected Left-wing rebels to Colombia, a sign of improving relations. Colombia says one belongs to the FARC rebel group, while the other two allegedly belong to the ELN. Earlier this year, then Colombian President Alvaro Uribe claimed Venezuela was harbouring rebels. The Deportations come a day after Colombia promised to extradite a drug suspect, Walid Makled, to Venezuela rather than the United States. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez had expressed concern...

Colombia to extradite accused Venezuelan drug lord
By Luis Jaime Acosta Bogota | Tue Nov 16, 2010 10:03pm EST Bogota (Reuters) - Colombia will extradite a businessman accused of being a Drug kingpin back to his native Venezuela, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Tuesday, in a move bound to warm already improving ties between the neighbors. Walid Makled, known as "The Turk," was captured in August in Colombia in a joint operation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and was also wanted for Extradition to the United States on Charge...

Venezuela's economy fails to emerge from recession, shrinks 0.4 percent more in 3rd quarter
Caracas, Venezuela — Venezuela's economy shrank 0.4 percent during the Third Quarter from a year earlier, the Central Bank said Tuesday in a report that revealed the South American nation's struggle to emerge from Recession. The latest dip in gross domestic product in the July-September period was largely caused by a 4.4 percent drop in commerce from the same period of 2009, the report said. Economic performance was an improvement from the 4.6 percent contraction in the Third Quarter of...

Colombia spurns US extradition for reputed narco
Bogota, Colombia - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spurned a U.S. request to extradite an alleged Cocaine kingpin from Venezuela, saying Tuesday that the suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country. Walid Makled, 41, has claimed close ties with Venezuela's Socialist Government and the U.S. State Department last year called him that country's "largest drug trafficker." The announcement drew fierce criticism from U.S. Rep. Connie Mack. The Florida Republican accuse...

Colombia spurns US extradition for reputed narco
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spurned a U.S. request to extradite an alleged Cocaine kingpin from Venezuela, saying Tuesday that the suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country. Walid Makled, 41, has claimed close ties with Venezuela’s Socialist Government and the U.S. State Department last year called him that country’s “largest drug trafficker.” The announcement drew fierce criticism from U.S. Rep. Connie Mack. Th...

Colombia to extradite 'drug lord'
Colombia says an alleged Venezuelan Drugs kingpin arrested earlier this year will be extradited to Venezuela, rather than the US. President Juan Manuel Santos said he had given his word to President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela that the suspect, Walid Makled, would be sent home. Mr Makled is accused of Smuggling tons of Cocaine into the US. He alleges he was supported by Venezuelan officials. The decision is a sign of improving ties between Colombia and Venezuela. President Chavez had expressed c...

Colombia spurns US request to extradite reputed Venezuelan cocaine kingpin, will send him home
Bogota, Colombia — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spurned a U.S. request to extradite an alleged Cocaine kingpin from Venezuela, saying Tuesday that the suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country. Walid Makled, 41, has claimed close ties with Venezuela's Socialist Government and the U.S. State Department last year called him that country's "largest drug trafficker." The announcement drew fierce criticism from U.S. Rep. Connie Mack. The Florida Republican accus...

Colombia to extradite accused Venezuelan drug lord
By Luis Jaime Acosta Bogota | Tue Nov 16, 2010 2:00pm EST Bogota (Reuters) - Colombia will extradite a businessman accused of being a Drug kingpin back to his native Venezuela, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Tuesday, in a move bound to warm already improving ties between the neighbors. Walid Makled, known as "The Turk," was captured in August in Colombia in a joint operation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and was also wanted for Extradition to the United States on Charges...

Colombia spurns US extradition for reputed narco
Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos gestures during a Press Conference marking his first 100 days in office at the presidential palace in Bogota, Colombia, Tuesday Nov. 16, 2010. Bogota, Colombia -- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spurned a U.S. request to extradite an alleged Cocaine kingpin from Venezuela, saying Tuesday that the suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country. Walid Makled, 41, has claimed close ties with Venezuela's Socialist Government and the U.S...

Spanish pop star Alejandro Sanz back in Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Spanish pop star Alejandro Sanz is in Venezuela to perform for the first time in years after Concerts in 2007 and 2008 were canceled amid friction between the entertainer and President Hugo Chavez’s government. Sanz was in the western city of Maracaibo on Tuesday to sing in the first of three Concerts in Venezuela. The pop star canceled a Caracas concert in 2007 after a government official said Sanz wouldn’t be allowed to use a state-controlled stadium...

Spanish pop star Alejandro Sanz back in Venezuela after canceled concerts in spat with gov't
Caracas, Venezuela — Spanish pop star Alejandro Sanz is in Venezuela to perform for the first time in years after Concerts in 2007 and 2008 were canceled amid friction between the entertainer and President Hugo Chavez's government. Sanz was in the western city of Maracaibo on Tuesday to sing in the first of three Concerts in Venezuela. The pop star canceled a Caracas concert in 2007 after a government official said Sanz wouldn't be allowed to use a state-controlled stadium due to his cr...

Colombia's Santos: Not the Friend the United States Thought
Colombia's recently elected President, Juan Manuel Santos, has yet again proven that he puts regional political pressure above his commitment to Colombia's most important ally – the United States. This morning, in delivering the report for his first 100 days in office, Santos announced that he would seek Extradition for Walid Makled, Venezuela's most significant Drug kingpin, captured on August 18th in Colombia and wanted by the United States for Drug trafficking, back to Venezuela. In his spee...

From the Latin American Department of Newspeak Floods the Zone
Washington, DC - An event this Wednesday on Capitol Hill entitled “Danger in the Andes: Threats to Democracy, Human Rights, and Inter-American Security” has raised the ire of leftist governments and Activists in Latin America. Several news stories from the state-controlled media in Venezuela and Bolivia have included scurrilous attacks, evidently designed to demonize their critics. El Cambio, the state-run newspaper of Bolivia, whose Orwellian masthead reads “The truth wi...

Global Imaging Agents Industry - market research report on Reportlinker
This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Imaging Agents in US$ Million by the following product segments: Contrast Media (X-Ray, MRI, & Ultrasound), and Diagnostic Radiopharmaceuticals. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Latin America. Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for each region for the period 2007 through 2015. Also, a seven-year historic analysis is provided for these markets. The report p...

Chavez Creates `Socialist' Bourse With `High Yields'
Source: Bloomberg Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he is creating a “Socialist” state-run Public Bond Market that will offer local investors high yields to stimulate saving and allow nationalized companies to seek financing. The Public Bond Market, which will begin operations in December, will allow state-run companies to sell Debt to finance operations and individuals to seek investment opportunities, Chavez said. Chavez tightened his grip on the financial industry this year by closing m..

Agencia Venezolana de Noticias
Todo indica que la noticia no debía salir pública y que fue un conjurado indiscreto que la regaló a la agencia Argentina Télam este viernes. Cada detalle fue luego confirmado por participantes bolivianos y otras fuentes. La lista de los principales participantes cuyos nombres se conocen por esa vía conforma el principio de un verdadero inventario de quienes quieren manejar el destino de América Latina de acuerdo con sus ideas de perfil neofascista. Aquí est...

A Hedge Fund Republic?
Earlier this month, I offended a number of readers with a column suggesting that if you want to see rapacious income inequality, you no longer need to visit a banana republic. You can just look around. Nicholas Kristof addresses reader feedback and posts short takes from his travels. My point was that the wealthiest plutocrats now actually control a greater share of the pie in the United States than in historically unstable countries like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana. But readers protested t...

Building bother
"Expropriese!" came the cry from Hugo Chavez, a command which has come to fill Private investors in Venezuela with dread: "Expropriate it!" Hilton, Banco Santander, Williams, Cargill, Owens Illinois - the list of companies whose Venezuelan subsidiaries have been on the receiving end of President Chavez's orders in recent months reads like a Who's Who of major foreign investors. Alongside them are Latin American companies like Agroisleno, Sidetur, Exito and Cemex. B...

Colombia Should Ditch U.S. Special Relationship: El Espectador, Colombia
Under its new president, Juan Manuel Santos, Colombian policymakers are preparing for a change in relations with the United States, which, according to columnist Alvaro Forero Tascon of Colombia’s Semana, has been based on Colombian weakness and the-now-diminishing American influence. For Semana, Alvaro Forero Tascon writes in part: What President Santos calls “speaking in equal terms” with the United States is not overconfidence on his part, but his reading that there has been a chan...

Danger in the Andes: November 17, 2010
Are Democracy and Human Rights in danger under the “21st Century Socialism” of Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia? Does the ALBA Alliance of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua constitute a threat to U.S. interests and inter American security? Is current U.S. policy toward the region equipped to respond to the erosion of Democracy and the pernicious influence of such hostile actors as Iran, foreign and Domestic Terrorist groups, and narcotics traffickers? Four key U.S. Me...

Danger in the Andes: November 17, 2010
Are Democracy and Human Rights in danger under the “21st Century Socialism” of Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia? Does the ALBA Alliance of Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua constitute a threat to U.S. interests and inter American security? Is current U.S. policy toward the region equipped to respond to the erosion of Democracy and the pernicious influence of such hostile actors as Iran, foreign and Domestic Terrorist groups, and narcotics traffickers? Four key U.S. Me...

Clinton urges Senate to take START vote
Hoping to rescue one of the Obama Administration’s top priorities of the Lame-duck session, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Capitol Hill on Wednesday urging senators to ratify the START Nuclear arms treaty. “Recently some suggested that we need to hit the pause button, that it is too difficult to do this treaty in the Lame-duck session. I strongly disagree,” Clinton told reporters following a breakfast meeting with Leaders. “This is exactly what the Amer...

Obama Dealt Blow on US-Russia Nuclear Treaty
Obama's plans were set back Tuesday when Sen. John Kyl, an influential Republican on this issue, said that the pact to slash U.S. and Russia Nuclear Arsenals should not be voted upon this year. The terse statement by the Arizona senator dealt a major blow to Obama's efforts to improve ties with Russia and to his broader strategy for reducing Nuclear arms worldwide. The Treaty, known as New START, had been seen as one of the president's top Foreign Policy accomplishments. Without the support of...

White House intensifies push for Senate OK of arms treaty
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday the administration is nearing a consensus with congressional leaders on funding for improvements to the US Nuclear Arsenal, a sticking point in efforts to win Senate ratification this year for an Arms Control treaty with Russia. “We’ve had very encouraging discussions [with] a number of Republican senators who share our commitment to ensuring a robust Nuclear modernization program,’’ Clinton said...

The GOP is in Full Annihilation Mode
It's a constitutional requirement that two-thirds of the Senate vote to ratify any treaties that the U.S. government signs. The New START Treaty has the votes to pass in this Congress but probably does not in the next, which will have six more Republicans. That's why it is important to ratify the Treaty in the current Lame-duck session of Congress. This isn't really a Controversial treaty. It's supported by the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar (R-IN), as w...