In a news release late last week, America Movil said it now has a 99 percent interest in the company. Financial terms for the deal were not disclosed.

As of June, America Movil had 338,000 mobile clients in Nicaragua and more than 50 million wireless subscribers throughout the Americas.

America Movil also acknowledged in a filing with the Mexican Stock Exchange that its shares dropped in heavy trade Wednesday amid market talk that the company is about to acquire another operator outside of Mexico.

The company neither confirmed nor denied the speculation, saying that "periodically America Movil analyzes different investment opportunities in the telecommunications sector."

"To date the issuer has no additional information to disclose at its disposal," the company said.

Several traders dismissed the rationale that an acquisition should push America Movil's shares down, saying that the company's aggressive buying abroad hasn't bothered the market in the past as the carrier usually fetches low prices.

Instead, market participants attributed the decline in the company's share price to a big seller and profit-taking.
 

Venezuelan electoral body slams opposition for vote results prediction
President of the National Election Council (CNE), Francisco Carrasquero, said on Monday it is "unacceptable" that an opposition leader said he can offer the results of next Sunday's recall referendum.

"No one can be a judge on his own," the CNE president told reporters, in response to the announcement by Enrique Mendoza, one of the leaders of the opposition coalition Democratic Coordination.

At a rally on Sunday urging people to vote against President Hugo Chavez, Mendoza said that he can offer the outcome of the referendum before the CNE does.

These statements were aimed at creating an environment of "unrest" in Venezuela, "altering public order" and "disregarding the electoral institution," the CNE official said.

The vote which will take place from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time next Sunday.

The CNE leader also warned any local media outlet sending any type of message on Sunday announcing the vote results would be penalized.

He called on the ruling party and the opposition to keep their wits and sincerity. It is the first ever such referendum in the world's fifth largest oil exporter.

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and reelected to a six-year term in 2000, has been accused by his opponents of wrecking Venezuela's economy.

He has experienced two general strikes, a 48-hour military coup in April 2002 and a strike at the beginning of last year.
 

58 bodies in Paraguay's supermarket fire remain unidentified
Fifty-eight bodies remained unidentified after eight days of the fire in a supermarket on the outskirts of the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion, news from Asuncion said.

Paraguay's authorities confirmed Monday that the death toll was400 and 144 people were still missing.

Judicial authorities have gathered victims' belongings, such as burnt watches, jewelry and footwear, in a place to help identify the victims.

Some 50 groups of relatives remained outside the military headquarters, waiting for entrance in turn, to identify the scorched bodies of their loved ones.

"The corpses are quite decomposed. This is the final chance to find relatives, prepare funerals and bury them," said a judicial employee.

Prosecutor Edgar Sanchez, in charge of the investigation team, said that as of Monday about 70 vehicles will be allowed to be removed from the site of the incident by the owners or their relatives.

These cars exploded in the fire which destroyed the Ikua Bolanos supermarket, as they were parked under the commercial center.

A minute of silence was observed in Asuncion on Sunday in honor of the victims.

Rescuers Struggle to Save Beached Whale
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Rescue workers and biologists struggled Monday attempting to save a humpback whale that washed up on a beach here over the weekend.

About 80 people have been working since Sunday morning to help the 35-foot-long, 10-ton mammal return to the ocean.

Efforts to pull the whale back into to sea with the help of a tugboat failed on Monday as did an attempt Sunday with a motor boat. They said they would try again with two tug boats.

"His breathing is normal considering his condition," said Bernadete Fragosa, a biologist at the Rio de Janeiro State University. She said the whale could live approximately three days after being beached.

The whale washed up on Jurujuba beach just across from the city of Rio de Janeiro at the entrance to Guanabara bay.

Humpback whales live in the waters around the Antarctic and swim up the South American coast to reproduce in the warmer waters around Bahia state, some 700 miles to the north, Fragosa said.

She said the whale did not appear to be injured and probably got tired out from the long swim.