Ivan storms into Caribbean countries
The death toll in Grenada resulting from Hurricane Ivan has risen to 24 as the storm now threatens Jamaica and Cuba.

According to reports received in Havana, 90 percent of the buildings in Grenada were damaged or destroyed. Grenada's Prime Minister Keith Mitchell declared a national disaster.

Meanwhile, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, basic services were affected, with many areas left in blackout. In Aruba of the Dutch Antilles, hurricane-produced waves injured two people, one of them seriously.

The Cuban Meteorology Institute said Ivan brings gusts of wind of 230 km per hour Friday morning and it remains at Category-4 on the 1-5 Saffir-Simpson scale.

The storm continues moving slowly west-northwest at 20 km per hour.

Ivan's center was about 130 km south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and moving at 20 km per hour, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said Friday in its 2 p.m. (1800 GMT) advisory.

Airports were closed, residents moved to shelters and supplies were scarce in Jamaica Friday. The eastern part of Jamaica was already being battered by the storm's wind and rain.

So far, 33 people were killed by the hurricane in at least six Caribbean countries. Two deaths were reported in Venezuela and one each in Colombia, Tobago and Barbados in the storm. Ivan claimed another four lives in the Dominican Republic when four people fell into the water off the pier in Santo Domingo in a wave surge and were killed.

In Cuba, hit by Hurricane Charley last month which killed five people, Cubans were nervously readying for the new storm.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro asked Cubans to "show more discipline than ever to preserve the lives and health of our people".
 

Venezuelan opposition challenges results of referendum
The Venezuelan opposition presented on Friday the National Electoral Council (CNE) a report, challenging the triumph of President Hugo Chavez in the Aug. 15 recall referendum and terming it as a corrupt process.

At a press conference held at the CNE, Delsa Solorzano, legal consultant of the opposition Democratic Coordination (CD), said that the report contains 1,067 issues questioning the process of the referendum.

According to Solorzano, there existed manipulation of electoral registry and bi-directional transmission of the results in the elections.

The electoral organization is expected to respond to the report within 20 days.

Chavez defeated the opposition in the Aug. 15 recall referendum with 59.25 percent of the votes favoring his continuity in office against 40.74 percent of the votes supporting to recall his term.

The opposition coalition of Venezuela, known as the Democratic Coalition, has refused to accept Chavez's victory in the referendum, claiming irregularities.
 

Chile examines Pinochet's accounts in the US
The Chilean authorities have received background information on the accounts of former dictator Augusto Pinochet in the United States, local reports said Friday.

The documents were handed over by the US authorities to the Chilean government, which sent them to the anti-money-laundering brigade of the investigative police (Brilac), working with judge Sergio Munoz on the investigation.

A judicial spokesman said that the investigations on the Pinochet accounts in US Riggs Bank, will continue, although the Internal Tax Service has not taken judicial actions.

A US Senate committee found that Riggs Bank, based in Washington, had up to $8 million in secret accounts in Pinochet's name between 1994 and 2002.

Attorneys Carmen Hertz and Alfonso Isunze prepare to file charges against Pinochet for fraud by the end of the month.

However, Marco Antonio Pinochet, one of Pinochet's children, said that "the money my father had was the result of his savings, it was the result of donations and, undoubtedly, it was also the result of profits from these investments."

Pinochet, who took control of Chile by ousting constitutional President Salvador Allende in 1973 and ruled the country to 1990, faces hundreds of charges of homicide, kidnapping and torture.

He was arrested in London in 1998 at the extradition request of Spain to face four genocide charges, but Britain eventually allowed him to return to Chile 17 months later on grounds of poor health.