Venezuela's Chavez threatens to stop oil sales to U.S.

VENEZUELA

Chávez threatens to stop oil sales to U.S.

President Hugo Chávez threatened Sunday to cut off oil sales to the United States if Venezuela is attacked by its U.S.-allied neighbor Colombia in a dispute over allegations that Venezuela gives haven to Colombian rebels.

Chávez made his warning in an outdoor speech to thousands of supporters, saying, "If there is any armed aggression against Venezuela from Colombian territory or anywhere else supported by the Yankee empire, we . . . would suspend shipments of oil to the United States."

If carried out, such a threat would be a titanic economic blow for Chávez's government, which depends heavily on oil sales. The United States is the top buyer of oil from Venezuela, which is its fifth-biggest foreign supplier.

But Colombia has not threatened military action, and it's likely that Chávez issued the warning in part to put Washington and Bogota on notice that he will not stand for a more aggressive international campaign to denounce allegations that leftist Colombian rebels are finding refuge in Venezuela.

Chávez cut off diplomatic relations with Colombia on Thursday after outgoing President Álvaro Uribe's government presented photos, videos and maps of what it said were Colombian rebel camps inside Venezuela. Chávez called it an attempt to smear his government and said Uribe could be trying to lay the groundwork for an armed conflict.

-- Associated Press

NORTH AFRICA

French hostage dead, al-Qaeda leader says

The leader of al-Qaeda's offshoot in North Africa said in a message broadcast Sunday that the group has killed a French engineer taken hostage in Niger in April.

In an audio message broadcast on al-Jazeera, Abdelmalek Droukdel said the group killed the 78-year-old hostage in retaliation for the killing of six al-Qaeda members in a recent raid by Mauritanian forces aided by the French military.