Residents protest Peru tourism expansion

Residents protest Peru tourism expansion

LIMA, Peru - Residents near Peru's southern highland tourist destinations are fighting two government proposals to expand private development around Machu Picchu and other historical sites, including the ancient Inca capital of Cuzco.
Protesters, who burned tires and blocked roads around Cuzco last week, are threatening more unrest if Congress does not reject the two proposed laws, said Hugo Gonzales, president of the department of Cuzco where Machu Picchu is located, on Saturday.

PeruRail suspended the only train service to Machu Picchu on Thursday after protesters closed roads and blocked access to public transportation. Tourists were transported out of the affected areas in police vehicles.

The proposed laws, one of which was already rejected but requires a second vote, would ease construction restrictions in Cuzco and allow for more hotels to be built near archaeological sites. The area between Cuzco and Machu Picchu is dotted with ancient Inca ruins. The second law is expected to be voted down as well.

Machu Picchu, ruins of a citadel built in the 1400s, is perched in the clouds at 2,430 meters (8,000 feet) above sea level on an Andean mountaintop.

Family, friends bid farewell to Ledger

Family, friends bid farewell to Ledger

PERTH, Australia - Heath Ledger's family joined celebrities and other mourners Saturday to bid farewell to the actor at a memorial service in his Australian hometown that began with a haunting Aboriginal dirgeLedger's former fiancee, actress Michelle Williams, arrived along with his parents and sister at Penrhos College, where about 100 other mourners had gather to honor the 28-year-old "Brokeback Mountain" star who died of an accidental prescription drug overdose in his Manhattan apartment last month.

Williams, wearing dark glasses and a white dress with black trim, was not accompanied by Matilda, her 2-year-old daughter with Ledger.

Australian actress Cate Blanchett, who starred with Ledger in the Bob Dylan bio-flick, "I'm Not There," a role that earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress, was among the celebrities present.

Ledger's father Kim said the service will be followed by a private funeral in Perth. He appealed for privacy and did not disclose the time or location.

"The funeral will be very, very private and there will only be 10 people there, immediate family and nobody else," Kim Ledger told reporters earlier in the day.

"It's a pretty sad time. We're finding it difficult to cope by ourselves, let alone cope with everybody around the world," he said.

"Having said that, we do really appreciate the outpouring and the emotional support from all over the globe," he added.

Mourners at the high-security service filed through a screened side gate where two women dressed in black checked their identification.

Among the first to arrive at Penrhos College was Australian model Gemma Ward, a former girlfriend of the 28-year-old "Brokeback Mountain" star. Wearing dark glasses with a black top and skirt, Ward filed with other mourners through a screened side gate where two women dressed in black checked their identification.

Local musician Levi Islam told reporters outside that he opened the service in a theater by playing an ancient Aboriginal dirge with a didgeridoo, a traditional wind instrument.

Ledger's death on Jan. 22 drew outpourings of grief from New York to Hollywood to Perth, a small and remote city on the verge of the Outback in Australia's southwest.

Family members returned home from the United States this week to lay Ledger to rest following a memorial service in Los Angeles last weekend.

Williams, 27, and Ledger became a couple during filming of "Brokeback Mountain," in which the two costarred as husband and wife. Ledger was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in the film.

Venezuela denies oil assets frozen

Venezuela denies oil assets frozen

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's top oil official accused Exxon Mobil Corp. of "judicial terrorism" on Friday, but said court orders won by the oil major do not amount to confiscation of $12 billion (8.3 billion euros) in assets. Exxon Mobil has gone after the assets of state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, in U.S., British and Dutch courts as it challenges the nationalization of a multibillion dollar (euro) oil project by President Hugo Chavez's government.

A British court last month issued an injunction "freezing" as much as $12 billion (8.3 billion euros) in assets.

But Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said: "They don't have any asset frozen. They only have frozen $300 million" in cash through a U.S. court in New York. As for the case in Britain, PDVSA doesn't have "any assets in that jurisdiction that even come close to those sums" of $12 billion (8.3 billion euros), Ramirez said.

Ramirez called it a "transitory measure" while the state company, known as PDVSA, presents its case in New York and London. Exxon Mobil is also taking its dispute to international arbitration, which Venezuela has agreed to.

But Ramirez, who is PDVSA's president, said Exxon Mobil "hasn't respected the terms of the arbitration" and said Exxon Mobil's claims in the Venezuela nationalization dispute "don't even come close to half the sum of $12 billion claimed by them."

Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Margaret Ross said the company had no comment on Ramirez's statements.

Ramirez said the court cases "don't have any affect on our cash flow, don't affect our operational situation at all."

Ramirez said Exxon Mobil sued in New York, London and the Netherlands to dispute the terms under Chavez's nationalization last year of four heavy oil projects in the Orinoco River basin, one of the world's richest oil deposits.

"We don't have any decision by any court that's definitive," Ramirez said. "We have a preventative measure in a court in New York that we have a right to respond to, and we are going to."

He accused the Irving, Texas-based oil major of employing "judicial terrorism" and trying to generate "financial nervousness" around PDVSA.

Ramirez later accused Exxon Mobil of having other aims to undermine the Venezuelan government. According to a government statement, he said the company is trying to "create a situation of anxiety in our country, a situation of nervousness."

Commentators on state television said they believe there is a closeness between the company and Chavez's archenemy — President Bush's administration.

According to documents filed last month in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Exxon Mobil has secured an "order of attachment" on about $300 million (207 million euros) in cash held by PDVSA. A hearing to confirm the order is scheduled in New York for Feb. 13.

In a Jan. 24 "freezing injunction" by a British High Court, the court said that "until the return date or further order from the court," PDVSA "must not remove from England or Wales any of its assets which are in England or Wales up to the value of $12 billion (8.3 billion euros)."

The court also said that if PDVSA disobeys the order, it could be held in contempt of court and be fined or have assets seized.

The credit rating agency Fitch Ratings said the British court order would "have a minimum impact on the company's day-to-day operations, as well as its near-term credit quality and financial flexibility." The agency noted that most of PDVSA's assets are located in Venezuela and the United States, where the company has refineries.

But Fitch Ratings also noted that the outcome of the arbitration process with Exxon Mobil remains uncertain and that "a negative outcome of the arbitration could pressure the credit profile of PDVSA."

Other major oil companies including U.S.-based Chevron Corp., France's Total, Britain's BP PLC, and Norway's StatoilHydro ASA have negotiated deals with Venezuela to continue on as minority partners in the Orinoco oil project.

ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil, however, balked at the tougher terms and have been in compensation talks with PDVSA.

Ramirez said Venezuelan officials have had "very important meetings" with ConocoPhillips Chairman Jim Mulva and have made progress toward an agreement. "I think we're on a path to achieving it," Ramirez said.

Mo. gunman had past trouble with council

KIRKWOOD, Mo. - Ten days after losing a free-speech lawsuit against this St. Louis suburb, a gunman stormed a council meeting, yelled "Shoot the mayor!" and opened fire, critically wounding the mayor, killing two police officers and three city officials. "Understand that this was an act of war by my brother. He had an actual person, or people, that he was in battle with. That this was not a random rampage," Thornton's brother, Gerald Thornton, told MSNBC outside City Hall Friday.

The city had ticketed Thornton's demolition and asphalt business, Cookco Construction, for parking his commercial vehicles in the neighborhood, said Ron Hodges, a friend who lives in the community. Thornton had said at previous meetings he received 150 tickets. The tickets were "eating at him," Hodges said.

"He felt that as a black contractor he was being singled out," said Hodges, who is black. "I guess he thought mentally he had no more recourse. That's not an excuse."

The meeting had just started when the shooter opened fire, said Janet McNichols, a reporter covering the meeting for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The gunman killed one officer outside City Hall, then walked into the council chambers, shot another and continued pulling the trigger, said Tracy Panus, a St. Louis County Police spokeswoman. A witness said the gunman yelled "Shoot the mayor!" as he fired shots in the chambers, hitting Mayor Mike Swoboda. Officer Tom Ballman was shot in the head, McNichols said.

Then, the shooter went after Public Works Director Kenneth Yost, who was sitting in front of Swoboda, and shot Yost in the head, McNichols said.

As he fired at City Attorney John Hessel, Hessel tried to fight off the attacker by throwing chairs, McNichols said. The shooter then moved behind the desk where the council sits and fired more shots at council members.

"We crawled under the chairs and just laid there," McNichols told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Friday. "We heard Cookie shooting, and then we heard some shouting, and the police, the Kirkwood police had heard what was going on, and they ran in, and they shot him."

McNichols told the Post-Dispatch council members Michael H.T. Lynch and Connie Karr also were hit. She identified the gunman as Charles Thornton, whom she knows from covering the council.

The names of the victims would not be released until a news conference Friday morning, Panus said. Swoboda was in critical condition Friday morning in the intensive-care unit of St. John's Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur, hospital spokesman Lynne Beck said. Another victim, Suburban Journals newspaper reporter Todd Smith, was in satisfactory condition Friday, Beck said.

Yellow police tape circled the entire block that includes City Hall. An impromptu memorial was growing on the City Hall's steps, where balloons and flowers were placed in memory of the victims.

Thornton was often a contentious presence at the council's meetings; he had twice been convicted of disorderly conduct for disrupting meetings in May 2006.

The weekly Webster-Kirkwood Times quoted Swoboda as saying in June 2006 that Thornton's contentious remarks over the years created "one of the most embarrassing situations that I have experienced in my many years of public service."

The mayor's comments came during a meeting attended by Thornton two weeks after he was forcibly removed from the chambers. Swoboda had said the council considered banning Thornton from future meetings but decided against it.

In a federal lawsuit stemming from his arrests during two meetings just weeks apart, Thornton insisted that Kirkwood officials violated his constitutional rights to free speech by barring him from speaking at the meetings.

But a judge in St. Louis tossed out the lawsuit Jan. 28, writing that "any restrictions on Thornton's speech were reasonable, viewpoint neutral, and served important governmental interests."

Gerald Thornton said the legal setback may have been his brother's final straw. "He has (spoken) on it as best he could in the courts, and they denied all rights to the access of protection and he took it upon himself to go to war and end the issue," he said.

The police department's chaplain said law enforcers from several agencies were anguished over the shootings.

"They're all just so sad, shocked by this," said Father Robert Osborne of St. Peter Catholic Church. "This doesn't happen in Kirkwood."

Kirkwood is about 20 miles southwest of downtown St. Louis. City Hall is in a quiet area filled with condominiums, eateries and shops, not far from a dance studio and train station. Despite its reputation locally for serenity, the city has grappled in recent years with crimes that brought it unwanted attention.

Down the street from City Hall is the Imo's pizzeria once managed by Michael Devlin, who kidnapped 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck in 2002 and held him for four years before authorities rescued him in January 2007. Also rescued was Ben Ownby, another teenager Devlin abducted just days before Devlin's arrest.

Those crimes got Devlin life terms on state charges, as well as 170 years behind bars on federal charges that he made pornography.

Brazil's carnival ends with gay ball

Brazil's carnival ends with gay ball

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Revelers wrapped up Brazil's wild carnival bash with the popular Gala Gay ball Tuesday night on Rio de Janeiro's streets, littered with feathers and sequins after five days of partying. Thousands of onlookers gawked as men in glittering miniskirts, evening dresses, bead-studded lingerie and feathered headdresses shimmied down a wide avenue to the sounds of ABBA's "Dancing Queen," for a party that would last until dawn Wednesday.

After a week that saw everything from a scandal over a planned Holocaust-themed float — later nixed by a judge — to a samba queen's quest to set a world record for the most plastic surgeries, revelers spent Carnival's last hours dancing the samba behind street bands.

"It is just impossible to describe it," 30-year-old Dutch bank worker Alexander Milikan said as he took a break from the festivities on Ipanema beach. "There's street parties everywhere, everyone's dancing, it's amazing."

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent and pre-Easter praying and fasting for the world's largest Roman Catholic country. But most Brazilians will be glued to their televisions in the afternoon to learn the winner of the centerpiece of Rio's Carnival: the fiercely competitive Samba parade.

Early favorites included the samba "schools" Unidos de Tijuca, Grande Rio and Beija Flor, which has won four of the past five years but had its reputation marred by accusations that directors conspired to steal last year's championship by intimidating judges. An investigation yielded an inconclusive report.

"They tried to disqualify our parade in 2007, but we have shown that we have won in the most dignified manner possible," Beija Flor's director, who uses the single name Laila, told a booing crowd before the group's parade got started early Tuesday.

Jeers gave way to applause, however, as the group paraded opulent floats, ornate costumes and a topless beauty queen. Its dancers were encrusted in gold and wore masks and wings, in an allusion to ancient legends of the Amazon rain forest.

Actresses Lucy Liu and Monica Bellucci were among the international celebrities attending this year's Rio parade, and supermodel Naomi Campbell showed up for Carnival in the coastal city of Salvador.

Israel-Gaza fighting escalates

Israel-Gaza fighting escalates

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel launched airstrikes against militants firing rockets from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and vowed to maintain a war "on all fronts" until the territory's Hamas rulers halt attacksVice Premier Haim Ramon said Israel would maintain its blockade of Gaza and reduce supplies of fuel, electricity and some food in an attempt to persuade Hamas to stop the rockets.

Lawmakers in Gaza, meanwhile, canceled a session of the Hamas-dominated legislature, fearing an Israeli attack. A day earlier, an influential Israeli lawmaker urged Israel to assassinate Hamas' political leaders.

Two Israeli toddlers, siblings aged 2 and 4, were lightly wounded when a Hamas rocket struck a home in Kibbutz Beeri, a collective farm about four miles from the Gaza border. The children had been playing outside.

Hamas also moderately wounded a 14-year-old girl and knocked out power in parts of the rocket-scarred Israeli town of Sderot with a barrage of rockets fired at border communities Tuesday and early Wednesday.

Gaza militants said Israel responded with several airstrikes overnight, but the military confirmed striking only once at militants who had just launched rockets. Hamas said four of its men were moderately wounded.

Israel indicated that it would not let up in its attacks.

"We need to understand there is a war in the south," Ramon told Israel Radio. "The war against Hamas has to be fought on all fronts."

Israel will continue to use the "economic weapon" against the Gaza Strip, said Ramon, a confidant of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's whose statements often reflect the prime minister's thinking.

Israel cut off virtually all shipments into Gaza three weeks ago after Hamas barraged Israel with rockets following an Israeli operation that killed 19 Gazans, most of them militants.

Hamas also took responsibility for a suicide bombing Monday in the southern Israeli town of Dimona. The Islamist group's first suicide attack in Israel in three years underscored its ability to hamper U.S.-backed efforts by moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to reach a peace deal with Israel by the end of the year.

On Wednesday, Abbas condemned the militants' rocket fire, but urged Israel to let supplies into Gaza.

"These rockets that are being fired at Israel must stop. It's pointless," he said at a news conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik. "At the same time, Israel should not use these rockets as a pretext for collective punishment on Palestinians in Gaza. Israel must always allow humanitarian supplies and other needs to be provided to Gaza."

Israel insists on an end to violence before it implements any peace agreement, but Abbas has had no control over Gaza since Hamas seized control there in June. Monday's bombers came from the West Bank, not Gaza, giving greater weight to Israel's demand that Abbas take stronger action against militants in the West Bank, too.

In the West Bank city of Hebron, relatives of Shadi Zghayer and Mohammed al-Herbawi said they learned from watching Hamas' Al Aqsa TV that the two were identified as the Dimona bombers. The two Hamas members in their 20s left home early Monday without saying where they were going, relatives said.

A farewell video of the two bearded bombers that Hamas released Wednesday showed them holding guns and standing in front of Hamas flags.

"I, the living martyr Mohammed Karim Mohammed Hijazi al-Herbawi ... sacrifice myself for the sake of God, for the sake of those who are besieged in Gaza, and in response to the crimes of the Zionist occupation," said the militant, who was wearing a green Hamas headband.

On Tuesday, Tzahi Hanegbi, chairman of the Israeli parliament's powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said Israel should go after Hamas' political leaders, and not just its gunmen.

Israeli defense officials said they were considering stepping up their airstrikes to target Hamas political leaders in Gaza. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media, said no decisions were immediately made.

However, Hamas lawmakers were taking no chances, calling off a meeting "because of the security situation in Gaza," said Iyad Qarra, media adviser to the legislature's speaker.

The Israeli economic blockade of Gaza has been compounded by Egypt's sealing of its border with the territory since Hamas' June takeover.

Late last month, militants tore down sections of Gaza's border with Egypt, enabling hundreds of thousands of Gazans to break out and buy supplies in an Egyptian border town. After 12 days of anarchy, Egyptian forces sealed the breaks on Sunday.

Israeli security chiefs have warned that Palestinian militants used the Gaza-Egypt border breach to slip out of Gaza, and could try to make their way from Egypt through a porous border into Israel. On Wednesday, Israeli leaders approved the construction of a border fence with Egypt.

The fence was originally proposed years ago, but was never built because of the cost, estimated at up to $270 million. Officials said designs for the wall should begin immediately, though it was not clear where the money would come from or when construction would begin.

US sees job cuts as economy cools

US sees job cuts as economy cools

The US has seen the first decline in employment since August 2003, providing fresh evidence that the US economy could be entering a recession.
Employers cut 17,000 jobs from their payrolls in January, Labor Department figures showed. Economists had been expecting a rise of 80,000.

The US economy has slowed sharply in recent months as a housing market slump has dented consumer spending.

US interest rates have been cut twice in nine days to boost growth.

"Serious signs"

In a speech in Kansas on Friday, President George Bush acknowledged that the US economy was going through a rough patch and urged lawmakers in Washington to pass an economic stimulus package.

"Inflation's low. Productivity's high, but there are certainly some troubling signs, serious signs that the economy is weakening and that we've got to do something about it," Mr Bush said.

US Congress and the Bush Administration have agreed an economic stimulus package which would add $150bn in tax rebates.

The measure has already been passed by the House of Representatives but is still awaiting Senate approval.

Recession mode

The job losses were across all sectors of the economy including manufacturing and professional services.

"The economy is in recession mode," said Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.9% from 5% in December, a two-year high, but overall the number of people in the labour force declined.

We should expect to see more bad news on the labour market

Nigel Gault, Global Insight

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates to 3% from 3.5% on Wednesday.

It followed an emergency unscheduled cut last week, when the Fed slashed the cost of borrowing by the largest amount in 25 years to prevent the economy from slowing further.

"We should expect to see more bad news on the labour market, at least through the middle of the year, before the heavy doses of monetary and fiscal stimulus begin to kick in," said Nigel Gault, an economist at Global Insight.