Around the World

Sunday, September 7, 2008

VENEZUELA

Naval Exercises Planned With Russia in Caribbean

Several Russian ships and 1,000 soldiers will take part in joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea this year, a pro-government newspaper reported Saturday.

Quoting Venezuela's naval intelligence director, Salbarore Cammarata, the newspaper Vea said four Russian boats would visit Venezuelan waters Nov. 10 to 14.

Cammarata said it would be the first time Russia's navy carried out such exercises in Latin America. He said the Venezuelan air force would also take part in the maneuvers.

The planned operations come at a time of heightened diplomatic tension and Cold War-style rhetoric between Russia and the United States, over both the recent war in Georgia and plans for a U.S. missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland.

EGYPT

Lethal Rockslide in Cairo

A clifftop in Cairo weakened by the untreated sewage of an illegal slum on its peak sheared off Saturday into more slum homes below, crushing to death at least 24 people, authorities said.

The rockslide into the shantytown of Manshiyet Nasr, outside Egypt's capital, buried at least 35 homes under boulders, some the size of houses.

As many as half of Cairo's 16 million people live in what the government calls "informal housing," without treated water or sewer services.

-- Ellen Knickmeyer

IRAQ

Chalabi Survives Attack

Former Iraqi deputy prime minister Ahmed Chalabi escaped an assassination attempt when a suicide bomber in a vehicle rammed his convoy late Friday night in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood, his spokesman said.

Chalabi, who had close ties to the Bush administration before the war, was unharmed, but two guards were killed and six injured, Ayad Kadhim Sabti said.

Also Saturday, a car bomb killed an Iraqi policeman and four civilians in Tall Afar, in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

-- Ernesto Londoño

Ruling Party Leads in Angola

Angola's ruling MPLA headed Sunday for a landslide victory in parliamentary elections which opposition parties have branded illegitimate, preliminary results showed. The MPLA has ruled the oil-rich African nation since independence from Portugal in 1975.

Swazis Observe 2 Anniversaries

Swaziland's King Mswati III celebrated his 40th birthday and his nation's 40th independence day with an extravaganza in the capital, Mbabane, that contrasted sharply with the biting poverty of his subjects.

From Staff Reports

and News Services