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Colombia: Schemes creating emergency
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Published: November 18, 2008
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia declared a state of emergency yesterday to crack down on illegal investment schemes that lured millions of people with promises of improbably high payouts, only to collapse amid rioting.
Government officials vowed to repay the poorest investors and sent police to shut down other suspected pyramid-scheme operations yesterday, even though some loyal clients marched through the streets to defend companies that had offered interest rates as high as 150 percent a month.
The emergency authority will last 30 days, and could be extended for 30 more.
Millions of Colombians had invested cash with unlicensed companies, and panic set in last week when one company, Proyecciones DRFE, collapsed amid news that its owner had left the country -- leaving about 600 billion pesos ($270 million) of investments in limbo.
Israel promises to release 250 Palestinian prisoners
JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised yesterday to release 250 Palestinian prisoners, a goodwill gesture to the moderate Palestinian president at a summit overshadowed by violence in Gaza that threatens a cease-fire.
Even as Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Jerusalem, Gaza militants were firing rockets, underlining that Abbas has little influence in the seaside territory. Islamic Hamas militants overran the Gaza Strip last year, expelling forces loyal to Abbas.
After a relatively effective five-month cease-fire, violence has returned, with Gaza militants firing dozens of rockets and Israel undertaking small armed incursions and air strikes.
Chinese coal miner is killed in flood, but 33 are rescued
BEIJING -- Flooding at a mine in central China killed one miner, but rescuers pulled 33 other trapped workers to safety today after a 23-hour ordeal, a state news agency said.
The miners were lifted out of a flooded shaft around dawn, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It was the third mine accident in three weeks to hit the resource-rich central Henan province, with an overall toll of at least six people killed.
There were 42 people working underground when the mine shaft flooded shortly after dawn yesterday at the Gaomendong Coal Mine in Jiaxian County, Pingdingshan City.
Taliban: No peace talks until troops leave Afghanistan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Taliban militants rejected an offer of peace talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, saying yesterday that there would be no negotiations until foreign troops leave Afghanistan.
Karzai offered Sunday to provide security for reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Omar if he enters negotiations and said that the U.S. and other Western nations could leave Afghanistan or oust him if they disagree.
But Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said there could be no talks while foreign troops are in the country.
"The Taliban's (leadership) decided they will not take part in any peace talks with Karzai or Karzai's administration until such a day when foreign forces leave Afghanistan," Mujahid said. "The Taliban will pursue jihad against foreign forces and (Karzai's) government," he said, speaking from an undisclosed location.
Guyana suspends search for plane with 3 on board
GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- Guyana has suspended its search for a U.S.-registered plane with three people aboard that disappeared over dense Amazonian jungle two weeks ago.
American pilots James Barker and Chris Paris and Canadian technician Patrick Murphy were doing uranium survey work for Prometheus Resources Guyana Inc., a subsidiary of U308 Corporation of Toronto, Canada, when the plane went missing.
Myanmar democracy activists sentenced to prison
YANGON, Myanmar -- Courts in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced at least seven democracy activists to prison yesterday, continuing a crackdown in which about 70 people were jailed last week.
Four student activists, two members of the opposition National League for Democracy Party and a former party member who has become a prominent independent activist got jail terms of 61/2 to 121/2 years at closed-door trials inside Yangon's Insein Prison, Nyan Win, a spokesman for the league, said.
Authorities last week sentenced about 70 opposition activists, writers, musicians and Buddhist monks to jail terms ranging from 21/2 years to 65 years.
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