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updated by 7:00 a.m. CST each day
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More Rain on
the Way; Yellow Alert!
The National Commission for Emergencies has called a
"yellow" alert for the coming weeks in
expectation of heavy rains.
More than 350 homes have been affected by the rains
of the past week, 117 of them seriously damaged and
at least 5 bridges have collapsed or in serious need
of repair, all due to strong currents.
October is the wettest month of the rainy season.
Developing Nations Trade Bloc Tries to Close Ranks
The foreign ministers of several developing nations met on Friday to try to hold together a trade bloc that has challenged the United States and Europe on farm subsidies.
Despite some defections, the group, dubbed the "G20+" alliance and formed just before last month's failed World Trade Organization talks in Cancun, vowed to fight on against billions of dollars in U.S. agricultural subsidies.
"We have the firm determination to continue the process of reform and total integration of agriculture with WTO rules," the ministers said in a statement.
Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica and El Salvador have already broken with the bloc's hard-line stance and Ecuador did not send a representative to Friday's meeting, which included the foreign ministers of 11 Latin American countries, China, India, Egypt and South Africa.
Ecuador said it intends to pursue a free-trade accord with the United States, despite the contention of some analysts that Washington is attempting to weaken the bloc.
Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa criticized the United States for using "warlike metaphors" in trade talks after U.S. Trade representative Robert Zoellick, who was not at the meeting, said recently that the bloc was pursuing "tactics of confrontation."
The fledgling trade alliance -- led by Brazil, China and India -- opposes U.S. and European agricultural subsidies that total $300 billion a year. Farm exporters South Africa and Argentina are also key bloc members.
The global trade talks that began in 2001 in Doha, Qatar are supposed to conclude by January 2005, but Chile's Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear said "there is very little time" to achieve that goal.
Alvear characterized the Cancun meeting as a "setback" rather than a failure and said talks can still be salvaged.
Brazilian officials made similar statements, softening the country's image as the most stubborn challenger of rich countries.
Brazil's ambassador to the WTO, Luiz Felipe Seixas Correa, told Reuters in an interview in Geneva on Friday: "It is a misrepresentation to say that it (the group) is an obstacle. It was formed precisely to help push the negotiations forward."
Columbus 'sparked a genocide'
Venezuela's populist leader has urged Latin Americans to boycott celebrations for the anniversary of the "discovery" of the Americas by Christopher Columbus.
President Hugo Chavez accused the much-lauded adventurer of spearheading a "genocide".
The 1492 arrival of the Italian explorer, employed by Spain, triggered a 150-year "invasion" of native Indians by foreign conquerors, who behaved "worse than Hitler", he said.
Columbus Day falls on 12 October and is celebrated with a public holiday on Monday in the United States and several Latin American nations.
But at a meeting in Caracas - attended by representatives of the indigenous population in South America, President Chavez said: "Christopher Columbus was the spearhead of the biggest invasion and genocide ever seen in the history of humanity."
"We Venezuelans, we Latin Americans, have no reason to honour Columbus.
Columbus Day should be remembered as the "Day of Indian Resistance", he said.
Spanish, Portuguese and other foreign conquerors had massacred South America's Indian inhabitants at an average rate of roughly "one every 10 minutes", he said.
He described Spanish conquistadors like Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro, as "worse than Hitler".
And he said even the continent's geographical names - such as America and Venezuela - were created and imposed by foreigners.
Opponents of Chavez - seeking a referendum to try to vote him out of office - say his real aim is to
install an anti-US communist system.
In his speech, Chavez praised Indian chiefs who had fought against the invaders, such as Guaicaipuro who resisted the Spanish founders of Caracas, and American Indian chief Sitting Bull, who defeated US General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.
"Long live Sitting Bull!" Chavez declared, drawing applause from his audience, many of whom wore traditional native clothes and head-dresses.
The second Monday in October was declared a national public holiday by president Richard Nixon in 1971.
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Mayoral candidate murdered in Colombia
Jairo Gomez, a Colombian mayoral candidate who was kidnapped on Friday, was found dead Saturday in the Quindio department, in the western part of the country, police said.
Gomez was running for mayor of the Genova municipality. Authorities have blamed the murder on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest rebel group in the country.
The killing of Gomez brought the toll of murdered candidates for the Oct. 26 elections to 26. Following the guerrilla threats, nearly 50 candidates have quit their campaigns.
The police said Gomez's body was found near Genova where he
waskidnapped.
In the Oct. 26 elections, voters are expected to elect governors, mayors and town councilors for the 32 department of the Andean country.
Road accident kills 40 in Peru
An inter-provincial route bus fell into a 300-meter abyss in the central Peruvian jungle region, killing at least 40 people, the National Police of Peru said Saturday morning.
The accident took place on Friday evening in the Huacupaj sector of the Pachas district, on the road that links the provinces of Huanuco and La Union, in Huanuco state, some 420 kilometers northeast of this capital.
The bus carried over 50 passengers when, because of speeding, abandoned the road and fell into Vizcarra River, after overturningseveral times.
The police pointed out that to the moment 25 bodies have been retrieved and nine injured people rescued, but the rescue tasks were suspended because of a shortage of equipment to recover the bodies of other victims trapped in the debris.
Over 1,000 desert L.A. Times over Schwarzenegger coverage
More than 1,000 readers have canceled their subscriptions to the Los Angles Times to protest its biased reporting of the campaign by California's governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, the newspaper said Friday.
The Los Angeles Times, the second largest United States newspaper, also received 1,600 telephone calls, the majority of which were critical, said Martha Goldstein, the newspaper's spokeswoman.
The newspaper reported that Schwarzenegger sexually harassed six women in the past three decades, thus setting off a controversy just days before the Oct. 7 recall vote.
Schwarzenegger was forced to apologize for his bad behavior toward women, while accusing his Democrat rivals of playing dirty politics.
After the report, 10 more women came out to accuse the Hollywood actor of having groped them or offended them with crude sexual comments between 1975 and 2000.
Schwarzenegger rejected the latest accusations as the Democrat conspiracy to torpedo his bid for the office of governor.
Despite the negative reports, Schwarzenegger won a landslide victory in the Oct. 7 vote which ousted Democrat Governor Gray Davis.
Meanwhile, Goldstein said the newspaper's policy of "fair, balanced and independent coverage" will boost the paper's image among readers despite the latest cancellations.
Goldstein said a paper's job is to give "very critical scrutiny" to all major candidates in an election, including Schwarzenegger.
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