The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Russia leases planes to Cuba, writes off Soviet debt
- Venezuela's Chavez still suffers breathing trouble
- Three die in shooting, fiery crash on Las Vegas Strip
| Russia leases planes to Cuba, writes off Soviet debt Posted: 21 Feb 2013 07:25 PM PST HAVANA (Reuters) - Russia will lease eight jets worth $650 million (426 million pounds) to its Cold War- era ally Cuba and will partially write off the country's multi-billion-dollar, Soviet-era debt under agreements signed during Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Havana on Thursday. Moscow will write off part of the $30 billion debt and will offer a 10-year refinancing plan for the remaining amount, according to the preliminary agreement, Russia's industry and trade minister Denis Manturov told reporters on the sidelines of the talks.
"There was an accumulated debt on loans allocated by the Soviet Union and we have now prepared an agreement that should undergo all the necessary procedures," he said. Manturov said the final decision on debt settlement will be signed by the end of the year. Russia will also lease three Ilyushin-96-400 long-haul jets, three AN-158 regional planes and two TU-204SM mid-range aircraft to Cuba under the agreements inked in the presence of Medvedev and Cuban leader Raul Castro. Moscow will provide sovereign guarantees to a syndicate of Russian banks financing the deal, Manturov said. Medvedev and Castro were seen chatting informally and broadly smiling during the ceremony. The Cuban leader greeted reporters in Russian. Russia and Cuba enjoyed close relations during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and Washington. The volume of trade between the two countries last year was roughly $200 million. Oil companies from Russia, the world's largest energy exporter, are drilling into Cuba's offshore oil deposits. (Reporting By Alexei Anishchuk; Editing by Stacey Joyce) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Venezuela's Chavez still suffers breathing trouble Posted: 21 Feb 2013 07:23 PM PST CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's cancer-stricken president, Hugo Chavez, is still suffering respiratory problems after surgery in Cuba two months ago, the government said on Thursday in a sombre first communiqué since his homecoming this week.
Struggling to talk and breathing through a tracheal tube, the 58-year-old socialist leader is being treated at a Caracas military hospital after returning unseen before dawn on Monday. Long accustomed to the drama and speculation over Chavez's health since cancer was first detected in June 2011, Venezuelans are now debating if he can recover and return to active rule, or may resign and try to ensure his vice president wins a vote. Some think he may have simply come home to die. "The breathing insufficiency that emerged post-operation persists, and the tendency has not been favourable, so it is still being treated," read the communiqué, in gloomy news for Chavez's millions of passionate supporters. The short statement, read by Information Minister Ernesto Villegas, said, however, that treatment for Chavez's "base illness" - presumably the cancer first diagnosed in his pelvic area - continued without "significant adverse effects for now." SPECULATION AND SECRECY Little detailed medical information has been made public on Chavez's condition, meaning the government's occasional short statements are pored over by Venezuelans for clues about the future for him and the nation he has dominated since 1999. Chavez is believed to be seeing only close family at the hospital and a few senior officials, including Vice President Nicolas Maduro and National Assembly head Diosdado Cabello. "The patient remains in communication with relatives and the government political group in close collaboration with the medical team," the statement added. "The president holds firm to Christ, with absolute will to live and maximum discipline in the treatment of his health." Apart from a few photos of him lying in a Havana hospital bed that were released by the government last week, Chavez has not been seen or heard from in public since his December 11 operation, his fourth surgery for cancer in just 18 months. He returned home at 2:30 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) on Monday without any of the fanfare or media attention that accompanied previous homecomings after treatment in Cuba. A source at the military hospital said there was tight security surrounding Chavez's ninth-floor suite, and that the only doctors treating the president there were Cubans. Staircases were sealed off with bars, the source said, and the area was covered by armed patrols and surveillance cameras. Chavez originally chose to be treated in Cuba - where he has spent more than five months in total since mid-2011 - due to his friendship with leaders Fidel and Raul Castro, plus the discretion guaranteed on the tightly controlled island. But in recent weeks, officials said, he had been pining to come home and listening to music from the his boyhood home in the "llanos" or plains in central Venezuela. Vigils are being held across the nation, while politicians are quietly gearing up for a possible new presidential election. Should Chavez leave power, a vote would have to be held within 30 days. His No. 2, Maduro, would likely run against opposition leader and state governor Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in last year's presidential election. (Editing by Daniel Wallis and Peter Cooney) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Three die in shooting, fiery crash on Las Vegas Strip Posted: 21 Feb 2013 06:45 PM PST LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Three people died in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip early on Thursday when one or more gunmen in a Range Rover sport utility vehicle opened fire on a Maserati, killing the driver and touching off a fiery multi-car crash.
The driver of the Maserati died in the pre-dawn shooting, and his car veered out of control and smashed into a taxi carrying two people, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police spokesman Officer Jose Hernandez said. The cab exploded into flames in the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, a popular tourist area in front of several casino resorts, killing the driver and a passenger. "There was a loud bang and I hear two other booms. I looked out my window at Caesars Palace ... and could see the fireball," witness John Lamb was quoted as saying on the website of Las Vegas KLAS-TV's 8News Now. The gunfire and collision in the busy intersection near the Bellagio and Caesars Palace hotels triggered another crash involving four other vehicles. At least four people were hurt including a passenger in the Maserati, and the Range Rover sped from the scene, Hernandez said. Authorities declined to identify any of the victims but the Las Vegas Review Journal newspaper and KLAS-TV identified the driver of the Maserati as aspiring rapper Kenneth Cherry Jr. YouTube videos of his music show him rapping from a silver Maserati while cruising the Las Vegas Strip. Attorney Vicki Greco, who has represented Cherry for what she described as minor traffic issues and in a civil case, told Reuters she had been in touch with his family and friends and that they were "devastated" by the news that he had been killed. "I have not been to the coroner ... From what I have heard, Yes, I can confirm. But I haven't been officially notified," Greco said, adding she believed it was him from news photos that showed the car. 'ARMED AND DANGEROUS' Police said the shooting was believed to have stemmed from a fight in the valet area of the Aria Resort and Casino on the Strip, but investigators had not established a motive. Representatives for MGM Resorts International, which owns the Aria, declined to comment on specifics of the incident but said it was working closely with police on the investigation. A hospital spokeswoman said three people had been treated and released at University Medical Centre after the incident but declined to provide information about a fourth person. Clark County Sheriff Douglas Gillespie told a news conference that police had few leads on the Range Rover or its occupants, who were considered "armed and dangerous," but had launched a multi-state search and were seeking help from the public. The sheriff bristled at suggestions that the outburst of gun violence could call into question the safety of the Strip, which attracts millions of visitors every year. "I have been asked by many of you this morning, ‘Is the Las Vegas Strip safe?'" Gillespie said. "Yes it is." "Las Vegas is a valley of 2 million people. Forty million tourists visit here a year. We have 153,000 hotel rooms. In order for my police organization and other law enforcement organizations in the valley to keep this community safe, we have to work very closely not only with the community but the resort corridor as well," he said. The incident occurred near to where rapper Tupac Shakur was shot on September 7, 1996, while riding in a BMW with Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight after the two men had attended a Mike Tyson boxing match. Shakur, 25, was hit by gunfire from at least one assailant in a Cadillac while sitting in Knight's car at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane and died six days later at University Medical Centre. The crime remains unsolved. (Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Eric Walsh; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Star Online: World Updates To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan