Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Friday he spoke with French President Nicolas Sarkozy about the Colombian hostage crisis and it was agreed French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner would visit Caracas for more consultations.
"Today I spoke with ... Sarkozy about some issues, above all the humanitarian exchange" of hostages for jailed rebels between the Colombian government and leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, Chavez said on state-run VTV television.
"We'll be happy to receive the French foreign minister next Feb. 20 to talk about this issue," he said.
France has been increasingly involved in Colombia's hostage crisis since the rebels kidnapped French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betencourt when she was campaigning for the Colombian presidency in 2002.
Chavez said Kouchner's visit would provide "assessment and more details" to Sarkozy about FARC's Feb. 3 announcement that they would release three Colombian lawmakers they have been holding captive for seven years.
FARC said it was prepared to release Gloria Polanco, Luis Eladio Perez and Orlando Beltran -- all captured in 2001 -- "unilaterally because of the state of their health."
The three lawmakers are among 43 high-profile hostages, including three Americans, whom the FARC wants to exchange for 500 rebels held in Colombian prisons.
The rebel group already released two hostages last month -- a lawmaker and a former aide and running mate of Betancourt -- to Chavez, whose leftist regime sympathizes with the Marxist FARC leadership.
Chavez said Sarkozy reiterated his trust in the Venezuelan government's efforts in Colombia's hostage crisis.
The FARC, which is accused of holding some 750 people hostage, is classified as a terrorist organization by the US and the EU.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS