Algiers, Algeria | AFP | Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro visited fellow OPEC member Algeria Monday for talks after announcing Caracas would sell crude oil in non-dollar currencies in a bid to resist US sanctions. Maduro arrived late Sunday in the North African country and met Senate speaker Abdelkader Bensalah on …
Read More »Venezuela to sell oil in currencies other than dollar
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Friday his government will sell oil and other commodities in currencies other than the dollar, in a bid to weather US-imposed sanctions on the embattled country. “I have decided to start selling oil, gas, gold and all other products that Venezuela …
Read More »Pope in Colombia: 3 highlights
Francis’s 12-hour journey from Rome was the first time the pope’s words have been reported direct from his plane. Bogota, Colombia | AFP | Pope Francis landed in Colombia Wednesday to promote peace after decades of war. Here are three highlights from day one of the Argentine pope’s fifth papal …
Read More »Debt, sanctions and disrepair: Venezuela’s oil sector in agony
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | After decades of being Venezuela’s cash cow, the state oil company PDVSA is a ragged shadow of its former self: overburdened, underfed, and in hock to Russian and Chinese creditors. The woes of the group, whose full name is Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., look set to …
Read More »Maduro orders Venezuela military drill after Trump threat
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro ordered the army to conduct a round of military drills later this month in response to US President Donald Trump’s threat of military action in the crisis-stricken nation. Maduro’s embattled government — facing a deepening economic emergency and swelling street protests — …
Read More »Helicopter launches grenade attacks on Venezuela Supreme Court: Maduro
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuela’s army has been put on alert after four grenades were hurled at the Supreme Court from a helicopter, President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday, in a potentially dramatic escalation of the violence gripping the oil-rich South American country. The helicopter assault comes a day after …
Read More »Carlos the Jackal on trial for 1974 Paris attack
Paris, France | AFP | Carlos the Jackal, the world’s most wanted fugitive in the 1970s and early 1980s, went on trial in France on Monday for the deadly bombing of a Paris shop more than 40 years ago. The 67-year-old convict cut a grizzled, thinner figure as he was …
Read More »Vatican: Failure in Venezuela talks could lead to ‘bloodshed’
Buenos Aires, Argentina | AFP | If upcoming Vatican-backed talks between Venezuela’s bitterly antagonistic government and opposition fail, the result could well be “bloodshed,” a papal envoy warned Saturday. “If one delegation or the other ends the dialogue, it’s not the pope but the Venezuelan people who will lose, because …
Read More »Venezuela’s Maduro accuses opponents of ‘parliamentary coup’
Caracas, Venezuela | AFP | Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused the opposition-majority legislature Tuesday of staging a “parliamentary coup” after lawmakers voted to put him on trial amid a tense political and economic crisis. “I have called a meeting tomorrow at 11:00 am (1500 GMT) at the National Defense Council …
Read More »Chavez in delicate and complex situation
By Joan Akello Nicolas Maduro , Venezuelan vice president, has said that President Hugo Chavez’s condition remains “delicate” three weeks after his cancer surgery. This comes after rumours such as that Chavez is in a coma. Madura said he had met with Chavez twice in Cuba, where he is being …
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