Month: September 2009

Caracas, September 06: In a sign of rising internal tensions, Venezuelan government and opposition supporters have taken to the streets of Caracas following worldwide protests against leftist President Hugo Chavez.

Leaders of the so-called ‘Democratic Alternative’, a coalition of opposition groups, headed a large demonstration on Saturday against a new education law approved last month.

Opponents say the law contains provisions intended to indoctrinate students and convert them into supporters of Chavez policies.

Seoul, September 06: The United States said on Sunday it would hold direct talks with North Korea but only in the context of the existing six-party framework, in response to Pyongyang’s renewed nuclear sabre-rattling.

US special representative on North Korea Stephen Bosworth has been in Seoul since Friday for talks with South Korean officials to discuss ways to press Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table.

Jerusalem, September 06: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon authorise hundreds of new homes to be built in the occupied West Bank despite US calls for a settlement freeze, a senior minister said on Sunday.

“The Prime Minister will announce in the coming days the construction of several hundred additional homes and public buildings,” Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, a close ally of the hawkish Premier, told public radio.

Netanyahu plans to authorise between 400 and 600 housing units, according to Israeli media.

Kathmandu, September 06: More than three months after a bomb went off during mass at one of Nepal’s oldest churches, killing three women — two of them Indians, police Sunday arrested the mastermind who is the head of an outlawed Hindu militant organisation.

Ram Prasad Mainali, chief of the Nepal Defence Army, a shadowy outfit that had asked all Christians and Muslims to leave Nepal or face dire consequences, was caught with three associates from southeast Nepal.

The four men were said to be armed and were caught from Rajgarh between Jhapa and Sunsari districts in eastern Nepal.

Mexico, September 06: Mexican soldiers arrested a suspected drug gang leader linked to a 2006 border incursion by armed traffickers into Texas and the killing of an anti-crime activist in July, the army said late Saturday.

The army said in a statement that soldiers acting on a tip about armed men detained Jose Rodolfo Escajeda in Nuevo Casas Grandes, in northern Chihuahua state.

Holden, September 06: A man shot his estranged wife and son to death inside a home late Sunday, then killed himself in his car when deputies tried to pull him over, authorities said.

His 2-year-old grandson also died, possibly while trying to escape out a second-story window, and his pregnant daughter-in-law was shot and critically injured, said Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief of Operations Perry Rushing.

Rushing said the shootings appeared to stem from an ongoing dispute between the 50-year-old man and his wife, who had a restraining order against him.

Kabul, Septembe 06: Detailed polling records released by an Afghanistan election commission reveal numerous polling places in Kandahar Province where all the votes were delivered to a single candidate — incumbent President Hamid Karzai .

The records bolster the case of ballot-box stuffing during the Aug. 20 election to pick a new president to lead Afghanistan , which is now struggling against an increasingly powerful Taliban insurgency.

Washington, September 06: President Barack Obama’s adviser Van Jones has resigned amid controversy over past inflammatory statements, the White House said early Sunday.

Jones, an administration official specializing in environmentally friendly “green jobs” with the White House Council on Environmental Quality was linked to efforts suggesting a government role in the 2001 terror attacks and to derogatory comments about Republicans.

The resignation comes as Obama is working to regain his footing in the contentious health care debate.

Washington, September 06: The top NATO commander confirmed that civilians were wounded by a devastating airstrike targeting insurgents in northern Afghanistan, a major test of his policy to curb airpower to reduce civilian casualties and win over Afghans to the war against the Taliban.

Meanwhile, a U.S. service member was killed Sunday in an insurgent attack in the east, U.S. forces said. The military did not provide further details.

Madrid, September 06: A Spanish restaurateur, fearing a drop in business due to swine flu, is seeking to pull in customers by offering a sanitised — and hopefully virus-free — environment.

Miguel Angel de la Cruz, manager of the Mesa y Placer (Table and Pleasure) eatery in Madrid, said he was forced to act ahead of a feared ‘second wave’ of swine flu this autumn, which is “more dangerous to business than the economic crisis.”