Heavy rains cause emergency in
Venezuela, kill 4
Continuous rains which began
hitting Venezuela last Saturday
have killed at least four people
and caused emergency in several
parts of the country,
authorities said Tuesday.
In a national television
broadcast, Vice President Jose
Vicente Rangel said the
government would declare a state
of emergency in six states and
the metropolitan area to bring
aid to hundreds of people left
homeless by flooding.
A damage assessment is being
conducted and contacts with the
Meteorology Direction of the Air
Force have been made to verify
forecasts, which indicated that
low temperature will affect the
country, said Antonio Rivero,
director of civil protection.
The Venezuelan government has
established an emergency
operation center to monitor the
rains which were forecast to
continue for another 24 hours.
Prison riot leaves 4 dead, 26
injured in Peru
Four inmates died and 26 others
were injured Tuesday morning in
a riot at the San Pedro jail in
the capital city, the largest
and most crowded one in Peru, an
official said.
Thirteen of the injured were
take to hospitals in Lima while
the other 13 received medical
treatment inside the prison,
said Wilfredo Pedraza, chief of
the National Penitentiary
Institute.
The riot was caused by an
internal strife among criminal
gangs and the inmates exchanged
fire with grenades and firearms,
said Pedraza.
"There is no petition, nor
demand against the jail's
authority. This is a conflict
between inmates' groups,
organized mafias which try to
control the prison for their own
economic purposes," he added.
A contingent of riot-control
agents and the Tactical Actions
Unit of the National Police of
Peru were sent to control the
situation.
The prison, located in the San
Juan de Luriganzho district of
Lima, is currently packed with
about 8,200 inmates, more than
four times the number it was
built to hold four decades ago.
|
|
El Salvador to rotate troops in
Iraq
El Salvador's President Elias
Saca is expected to announce on
Wednesday the departure of a
fourth contingent of troops to
rotate his country's 380
soldiers currently stationed in
Iraq, the Secretariat of
Communications of the Presidency
said on Tuesday.
The troops will depart from the
military airport of Ilopango, in
the outskirts of San Salvador,
reports from the Salvadorean
capital said.
The first Salvadorean contingent
was sent to Iraq in August 2003,
and the Central American state
is the only Latin American
country to keep troops in the
war-torn Arab country.
The soldiers of the third
contingent, of Cuscatlan
Battalion, are serving at Hilla,
south of Baghdad, and will
complete their mission this
month.
The Salvadorean president had
said that a decision to send
another group of soldiers would
depend on results of the Jan. 30
elections in Iraq.
|
|
|
|
