France asked Venezuela for help on Friday with a hurried mission to free an ailing hostage held by Colombian rebels, but Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he is powerless to act until Colombia and the US back off their hunt of a rebel leader.
Paris announced that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is willing to travel with Venezuela’s leftist president to the Colombian-Venezuelan border to try to secure the release of Ingrid Betancourt. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner made the announcement in an interview with Associated Press Television News.
Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate who also has French nationality, is in her seventh year of captivity in the jungles of southeast Colombia. She is among hundreds of people, including three US contractors, held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
PHOTO: AFP
Chavez, who negotiated earlier FARC hostage releases, said he wants to help, but indicated the US and Colombia should first stop trying to catch the rebel commander known as Ivan Marquez, a member of the FARC’s ruling secretariat.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said he does not know who Marquez is.
The Philippine Department of Justice yesterday labeled Vice President Sara Duterte the “mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the nation’s president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena. Duterte is being asked to explain herself in the wake of a blistering weekend press conference where she said she had instructed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr be killed should an alleged plot to kill her succeed. “The government is taking action to protect our duly elected president,” Philippine Undersecretary of Justice Jesse Andres said at yesterday’s press briefing. “The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
Ireland, the UK and France faced travel chaos on Saturday and one person died as a winter storm battered northwest Europe with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice. Hampshire Police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell onto a car on a major road near Winchester early in the day. Police in West Yorkshire said they were probing whether a second death from a traffic incident was linked to the storm. It is understood the road was not icy at the time of the incident. Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power, and closed
CONSPIRACIES: Kano suspended polio immunization in 2003 and 2004 following claims that polio vaccine was laced with substances that could render girls infertile Zuwaira Muhammad sat beside her emaciated 10-month-old twins on a clinic bed in northern Nigeria, caring for them as they battled malnutrition and malaria. She would have her babies vaccinated if they regain their strength, but for many in Kano — a hotbed of anti-vaccine sentiment — the choice is not an obvious one. The infants have been admitted to the 75-bed clinic in the Unguwa Uku neighbourhood, one of only two in the city of 4.5 million run by French aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Kano has the highest malaria burden in Nigeria, but the city has long
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