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2 US men arrested on gay cruise in CaribbeanBy CARLISLE JNO BAPTISTE, Associated Press Wednesday, March 21, 2012 ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) - Two California men on a gay cruise of the Caribbean were arrested Wednesday in Dominica, where sex between two men is illegal. Police Constable John George said police boarded the cruise ship and arrested the two men on suspicion of indecent exposure and "buggery," a term equivalent to sodomy on the island. He identified the men as John Robert Hart, 41, and Dennis Jay Mayer, 43, but did not provide their hometowns. George said the men were seen...

    Summer 2000 (8.2) Scandinavian Ancestry Tracing Roots to Azerbaijan by Thor Heyerdahl Above: Thor Heyerdahl with Peruvian children who still construct traditional boats made of reeds, the principle material that enabled early migrations on trans-oceanic voyages. Courtesy: Thor Heyerdahl. Archeologist and historian Thor Heyerdahl, 85, has visited Azerbaijan on several occasions during the past two decades. Each time, he garners more evidence to prove his tantalizing theory - that Scandinavian ancestry can be traced to the region now known as Azerbaijan. Heyerdahl first began forming this hypothesis after visiting Gobustan, an ancient cave dwelling found 30 miles ...

An archaeological research team from North Carolina State University, the University of Washington and University of Florida has found one of the most diverse collections of prehistoric non-native animal remains in the Caribbean, on the tiny island of Carriacou. The find contributes to our understanding of culture in the region before the arrival of Columbus, and suggests Carriacou may have been more important than previously thought. The researchers found evidence of five species that were introduced to Carriacou from South America between 1,000 and 1,400 years ago. Only one of these species, the opossum, can still be found on the...

(The Daily Beast) - Just days after President Obama announced a new austerity program to save billions in federal spending and travel, his attorney general, Eric Holder, is spending five days on the taxpayer’s dime hopping around Caribbean islands in the name of improving law enforcement in the region. Holder’s stated mission for the trip was to sign law-enforcement agreements with authorities in the area and to inspect some condos recently seized by federal authorities in a Medicare fraud sting substantially smaller than the department’s usual pursuits prosecuting massive Wall Street fraud, terrorists, and murderers. He’ll also attend an international...

China is continuing its bold economic and geopolitical march through the Caribbean and Latin America, using its growing economic might to dole out grant aid and soft loans to win friends and influence governments, continuing its plans to displace the United States as the region's major trading partner in the not-too-distant future. For two days this week, a large Chinese delegation led by Vice-Premier Wang Qishan spent hours in talks with Caribbean leaders and business delegations. By the time the forum ended in Trinidad's capital of Port of Spain, Beijing had unveiled measures worth $6.3 billion aimed at sealing better...

IN A BOLD declaration of his country’s bold ambitions for the Caribbean region, China’s Vice Premier Wang Qishan yesterday unveiled a suite of measures including a $6.3 billion loan to regional governments, aimed at deepening cooperation between the People’s Republic and the Caribbean. In an opening address at the Third China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum, the Vice Premier wasted little time unveiling a series of six concrete steps which his country will take to consolidate its already considerable influence in the region. Among measures announced to thousands at the Regency Ballroom, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, were: • a US$1 billion...

China announced on Monday it will provide $1 billion in loans to Caribbean countries to finance infrastructure projects as it deepens ties in a region historically linked with the United States. The loans will be made available through the state-run China Development Bank, China's Vice Premier Wang Qishan told a meeting of Caribbean and Chinese officials in Port of Spain, capital of oil and gas producer Trinidad and Tobago. "China cannot develop itself in isolation of the world and the world needs China for its development," he said.

During a televised discussion of the past week’s riots in England on Friday night, a prominent English historian sparked outrage by insisting that black, Afro-Caribbean culture was to blame for the mayhem and looting, even when the rioters were white. David Starkey, who has presented several documentaries on the Tudor period, said during a BBC debate: “the problem is that the whites have become black — a particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic gangster culture has become the fashion — and black and white, boy and girl, operate in this language together; this language, which is wholly false, which is...

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — After the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 2005, it received a token of appreciation from the mainland Chinese government: a $55 million cricket stadium. It was part of $132 million China doled out to Caribbean countries in aid and soft loans in the years leading up to the 2007 Cricket World Cup. At the time, the investment was seen as a not-so-subtle reward to countries that had broken off formal relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing. Ever since, China has made that sum look like pittance. The Beijing...

Rock art specialists from around North America have finally solved this century old archaeological riddle. The stone slab is evidence that native peoples from Puerto Rico or Cuba once lived within the interior of Eastern North America. One day, long before Christopher Columbus claimed to have landed on the eastern edge of Asia, a forgotten people cut steps in the rocks leading up a steep bluff near the Chattahoochee River in the northwest section of the State of Georgia. They carved a supernatural figure on a four feet by one foot granite slab and erected it on the top of...

There are cameras that capture images clear enough to distinguish between a fishing vessel and a boatload of pirates 10 miles away. There are cascades of water and noxious compounds to repel invaders. And there are shields to withstand a rocket-propelled grenade. A container ship that steamed into a Puerto Rican port Friday was old by commercial shipping standards but it had the latest in security measures, upgrades that convert it into a floating fortress designed to be impregnable to piracy.

The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) decided at a meeting on Friday to set up a South American Parliament in Bolivia to promote the bloc's integration. Chilean President Michele Bachelet, also the UNASUR's temporary president, and Bolivian President Evo Morales opened the meeting in Bolivia's Cochabamba province which drew representatives from 12 countries in the region. "There are many tasks that the UNASUR is urged to accomplish, as part of the Latin American and Caribbean efforts," Bachelet said. Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia said that UNASUR members consider it necessary to promote the construction of the institutionalism and the...

21st Century SocialismThe attempt to destroy democracy in Latin America.  The Obama administration started out on the wrong foot in world affairs. It used techniques better suited for domestic political campaigns — popularity contests — in its foreign policy. In our own hemisphere, the result was confusion for our allies and our enemies alike. The overriding objective of U.S. policy — in Latin America and elsewhere — should be to advance U.S. national interests, not to curry favor with foreign leaders. If we can be liked while advancing our interests, so much the better. But when we try to befriend...

Goals include promoting calypso and improving calypsonians' lives Reigning Calypso Monarch Kurt Allen wants to use his title to help preserve the legacy, integrity and historical value of calypso music through the establishment of the Office of the Calypso Monarch. The initiative was launched yesterday at the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain, with the unveiling of a crest. "When I became Calypso Monarch, I made a pledge that I will let my reign be reflective and symbolic of new development because I believe that emphasis must be placed on youth in calypso," Allen said. The office...

The crime was horrifying enough — a nightclub owner, hacked to death with a machete, was found buried in pieces. But what really outraged people was that the accused killer had been deported from the U.S. to his native Grenada as a convicted felon. As a foreign-bred criminal, the suspect never should have returned to the close-knit tropical nation, relatives of the victim and others said. Islanders called for more vigilance over deportees by the government, which says it needs help from Washington to handle the return of hardened convicts. "I hope that my brother did not die in vain...

From the August 10 edition of Jonah Goldberg’s The Goldberg File: Washington, D.C., … we all know, is a pestilential swamp where the horseflies and water snakes have been replaced with congressmen and senators. And that’s not a fair trade, because horseflies and water snakes leave your wallet alone when they bite. That’s where the Seat of Government (SOG — one of the few acronyms which makes sense as a stand-alone word) has long been located. There are lots of possible reasons why the SOG came to be in Washington, D.C., including the proximity to George Washington’s Mount Vernon. However,...

The twin-island Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago would seem to be the last place to raise alarm bells over the threat of radical Islam. Trinidad was briefly catapulted into the spotlight in June 2007 when reports surfaced that one of the suspects linked to an alleged plot to attack New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was a Trinidadian national and that the suspects reached out to Yasin Abu Bakr, the leader of Jamaat al-Muslimeen (JAM, Association of Muslims), for assistance in executing their plan. JAM is an enigmatic Trinidadian Muslim militant group that is implicated in violence,...

Holidaymaker John Anderson has uncovered what is believed to be a 300-year-old rifle – while hunting for lobsters. The 55-year-old, below, was snorkelling off the south coast of St Lucia in the Caribbean when he spotted a large rock with a hole beneath it at a depth of about two metres. Thinking it looked like the ideal hiding place for some juicy lobsters, John dived down and grabbed on to what looked like "a piece of rock" on the seabed to hold him underwater. But to his astonishment, the object began to move and John, who has an interest in...

Trinidad and Tobago elected its first female prime minister on Monday. Kamla Persad-Bissessar took a multiparty coalition to victory over the People's National Movement (PNM) and its leader, Patrick Manning, who had been in power for 13 of the last 17 years. During this campaign, Persad-Bissessar's gender was used by the opposition to appeal to deepseated but, hopefully, bygone fears. Manning repeatedly painted Persad-Bissessar as a pawn in the hands of strong and dangerous men and suggested that "the lady" was not strong enough to rule. Persad-Bissessar, by contrast, bravely appeared on her campaign platforms to the tune of Helen...

Bared teeth are a prominent and eye-catching feature on many historical and archaeological artifacts, and are commonly interpreted as representing death, aggression and the shamanic trance. But a study in the forthcoming issue of Current Anthropology argues that the bared-teeth motif often expresses something a bit less sinister: the smile. Alice V. M. Samson, Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University, the Netherlands, and Bridget M. Waller, Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, examined the bared-teeth motif (BTM) of the Taíno, who lived in the Greater Antilles (the Caribbean) from AD 1000 to the early decades of European contact (1492-1550). Here...

SNIPPET: "President Chávez also announced during the visit that Venezuela is working on a preliminary plan for the construction of a “nuclear village” in Venezuela with Iranian assistance so that “the Venezuelan people can count in the future on this marvelous resource for peaceful purposes.” The transfer of Iranian nuclear technology from Iran would be a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions - 1737 (2006), 1747 ( 2007), and 1803 (2008) - that imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear technology transfers. In late September 2009, comments by Venezuelan officials offered conflicting information about Iran’s support for Venezuela’s search for uranium deposits....

The US Navy's first "Littoral Combat Ship" (LCS), the USS Freedom (LCS 1), has entered service in the Caribbean, joining the U.S. Navy drug interdiction patrol. Operating out of a base (Mayport) near Jacksonville, Florida, the Freedom headed south on February 15th, and on the 22nd intercepted its first drug smuggling boat off the Colombian coast, recovering a quarter ton of cocaine. The LCS was built for this kind of coastal operations. The USS Freedom completed its sea trials and acceptance inspections during August, 2008. The ship did very well, with far fewer (about 90 percent fewer) problems (or "material...

The devastating magnitude 7.0 quake that ripped through Haiti Tuesday, reportedly killing thousands, did not catch everyone by surprise. In an interview last week for an unrelated story, Robert Yeats, a professor emeritus in geoscience at Oregon State University in Corvallis and co-author of a June 1989 article for Scientific American "Hidden Earthquakes," said that an imminent big west coast earthquake concerned him far less than a "big one" that might occur in Haiti, due to the large fault near the capital city of Port-au-Prince—and the poverty-driven low level of earthquake-preparedness there. "If they have an earthquake on this fault...

Haiti has received billions of dollars in taxpayer and private aid from the United States and others, yet is so poor that few homes had safe drinking water, sewage disposal or electricity even before the earthquake. With sympathetic donors around the world sending money, making sure that aid is spent properly will be a challenge. Corruption, theft and other crime and Haiti's sheer shortage of fundamentals — reliable roads, telephone and power lines and a sound financial system — add to the difficulty as foreign governments and charities try not only to help Haiti recover from the disaster but pull...

Haiti has been ranked as the most corrupt country in the World by Transparency International (TI), followed by Burma and Iraq. The Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog said that for the first time, Haiti topped the table. The survey relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption in different countries, as seen by business people, academics and risk analysts. Bangladesh had headed the rankings for the previous five years. The chair of TI, Hugette Labelle, said that there was a strong correlation between corruption and poverty "Corruption traps millions in poverty," she said. "Despite a decade of progress in establishing anti-corruption laws...

HH: I begin this Thursday with Columnist To the World, Mark Steyn, www.steynonline.com. Very few people have traveled as far around the globe as Mark. Mark, have you ever seen anything remotely approaching this Haiti thing? MS: No, because I think Haiti is, certainly in the Western Hemisphere, as near as you can get to an entirely non-functioning state. By the standards of the Caribbean, it’s a failure and a disaster before the earthquake strikes. If an earthquake had happened to strike the Bahamas, or even the Turks And Caicos, it would not have looked like this. And that’s why...

For 200 years the Caribbean nation has suffered from natural disasters and violent rulers By any standards, Haiti represents a very great concentration of misery and dashed hopes. In January 1804 – a key date in the history of a bedevilled country – the African slaves overthrew their French masters and declared the world’s first black republic. Haiti became an emblem of slavery’s longed-for abolition. And the slave leader, Toussaint L’Ouverture, was hailed by William Wordsworth, among other Romantics, as a “morning star” of the Americas. Since independence, however, emperors, kings and presidents-for-life have misruled the Caribbean nation through violence...

Australia pledged $10 million in aid to Haiti today as US officials said the death toll from yesterday's huge earthquake could rival the loss of life from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. As aftershocks continued to shake the devastated capital Port-au-Prince, residents tried to rescue people trapped under rubble, clawing at chunks of concrete with bare hands. Tens of thousands wandered dazed and sobbing in the chaotic, broken streets, hoping desperately for assistance. One young man yelled at reporters in English: "Too many people are dying. We need international help ... no emergency, no food, no phone, no water, no...

Once again, natural disaster has brought its wrath to Planet Earth; this time it is Haiti that must bear the brunt of nature’s fury. An earthquake registering 7.0+ on the Richter scale has devastated the tiny Caribbean country. Once again, America’s heart opens to the victims. We will respond as we always do: with compassion and utter disregard for politics. We can discuss Haiti’s political upheaval, the environmental nightmare created by a clueless officials another time. These are people who are suffering now. Children, babies. Parents, the elderly. Hospitals and clinics where they might seek medical treatment have vanished into...

(AP) — SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Caribbean islands battling drug-fueled crime had one of their bloodiest years on record in 2009, with Jamaica, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico hitting or coming close to all-time highs for homicides. The violence reflects the drug trade's deep entrenchment in the region, with high murder rates becoming a fact of life at tourist havens that traffickers use as transit points for South American drugs bound for Europe and the United States. In countries including the Bahamas, which set a record with more than 82 slayings, officials say they are contending with turf battles...

Six Democratic members of Congress enjoyed a Caribbean junket sponsored by Citigroup after Congress had approved the $700 billion bailout of financial services firms in October. The National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group, has asked Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for a formal review of the Citigroup’s sponsorship of the trip by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel and five others. The NLPC says the trip violated House rules. The purported purpose of the Nov. 6-9 junket was to attend the Caribbean Multi-Cultural Business Conference on the island of...

Sunday, August 16, 2009 The Government of the United Kingdom has assumed direct rule over the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, after an enquiry discovered what it alleges to be corruption and "serious dishonesty" at the highest levels. The islands' administration and Premier have been suspended for up to two years and their powers transferred to the UK-appointed Governor. The British Government has taken the unusual step because it alleges that former Premier Michael Misick and members of his cabinet have enriched themselves through the selling of crown land and other corrupt practices, and that the limits to...

On July 27, 2009 Trinidadians marked the nineteenth anniversary of the failed attempt by the Jamaat al-Muslimeen (JAM - Muslim Association, known colloquially as “the Jamaat)” to overthrow the government in Trinidad and Tobago in a violent coup. Although JAM made international headlines in June 2007 when one of the suspects in an alleged plot to attack New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was reported to have ties to the group, the enigmatic Caribbean militant group, composed mostly of Afro-Trinidadian converts to Islam, has received scant attention outside of Trinidad in recent years (see Terrorism Monitor, June 21,...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _______________________________________________ For Immediate Release June 2, 2009 NATIONAL CARIBBEAN-AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH, 2009 - - - - - - - BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION Caribbean Americans have made lasting contributions to our Nation's culture and history, and the month of June has been set aside to honor their cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and social diversity. Generations of immigrants have preserved the traditions of their homelands, and these traditions have defined our Nation's identity. Caribbean Americans bring a...

MOSCOW, May 6 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian MP has proposed responding to NATO military exercises in Georgia by inviting Cuba and Venezuela to take part in full-scale drills in the Caribbean Sea. The Cooperative Longbow/Cooperative Lancer 2009 command-and-staff exercise, which Moscow has criticized as unhelpful in the wake of last summer's armed conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia, starts on Wednesday and runs until June 1. Sergei Abeltsev from the Liberal Democratic Party proposed holding "large-scale drills" with the participation of the armed forces of Russia, Cuba and Venezuela in the Caribbean on July 2. "So that...

Britons flee French island of Guadeloupe as rioters turn on white families By Mail Foreign Service Last updated at 3:17 PM on 19th February 2009 Britons are among thousands of tourists fleeing Guadeloupe after full scale urban warfare erupted on the French Caribbean island. Trouble broke out on the island earlier last month after protesters began rioting over high prices and low wages. But the situation escalated this week after protesters began turning on rich white families as they demanded an end to colonial control of the economy. The troubles come at the height of the holiday season, with thousands...

One Caribbean nation wants to execute criminals who use weapons, even if they haven't killed anyone. Another is seeking the death penalty for murderous pirates. And a third, St. Kitts and Nevis, staged its first hanging in a decade Friday. A crime wave is fueling a thirst for executions across the English-speaking Caribbean, prompting concern among human rights groups who say better policing on the islands would do more to deter criminals.

A Britten-Norman Trislander, the kind of small aircraft that disappeared off the Dominican Republic Monday with 12 on board. A small Caribbean airplane that vanished into thin air Monday was allegedly stolen by a fired Dominican Navy cadet who may have been trying to carry illegal immigrants to America, the plane’s owner told FOXNews.com. Luis Perez, the Puerto Rico-based owner of the aircraft charter company, said his twin-engine plane was stolen by an unlicensed pilot named Adrian Jimenez. Authorities told him Jimenez was a student of the Dominican Republic Armed Forces and a former Navy cadet. “They took his pilot’s...

High-ranking members of Congress were flown to a lush Caribbean resort this month for a three-day conference planned and paid for by several of the country's most powerful corporations - a violation of federal ethics rules, critics say. Six members of the Congressional Black Caucus attended the 13th annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference in sun-drenched St. Maarten, including embattled Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel and New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne. Three New York City officials attended, including Comptroller William Thompson and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr., as well as Gov. Paterson, who was the keynote speaker at a luncheon on...

At 0230 I typed the words THE END into my manuscript of UNCERTAIN PARADISE: 1973 ***The Latter Days***. It was electronically submitted to my publisher...the contract is signed. I told my wife I was within ten or so pages of finishing it yesterday morning. Her reaction: "Hmmmm." After nearly thirty years of marriage I was able to translate: wake me up when we're rich. She's got to be kidding. Barack Obama mentions a book and it's a best seller. He'll never read my stuff. Part One of Uncertain Paradise: 1973 deliberately left several threads unresolved. That is, after all, what...

PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic-The ocean glows a milky turquoise. Tiny waves lap at the powder-beige sand, in no rush to reach the line of postcard-perfect palm trees. Hundreds of luxury villas are positioned to take in the view, but there are no guests. There are no roofs either; neatly tied bundles of red tiles are stacked outside. The wind slams doors and rustles the yellowed newspaper taped to the windows. The paralyzed work scene at the Cap Cana resort, a development including four luxury hotels, three golf courses and a mega-yacht marina, is a victim of the global financial crisis...

(11-11) 14:59 PST SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Jamaican pastor Terrence Brown wants killers put to death — he's even offered to trade his collar for a hangman's hood to confront a crime wave that has been terrorizing his parishioners. "If the government doesn't carry out their responsibility, you're going to have jungle justice, and that is what is growing rapidly in Jamaica and across the Caribbean," said Brown, a preacher with the evangelical Holiness Christian Church in Jamaica's Spanish Town.

BULLETIN HURRICANE PALOMA INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 5A...CORRECTED NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL172008 700 PM EST THU NOV 06 2008 CORERCTED HEADER TITLE TO HURRICANE STATUS ...PALOMA RAPIDLY STRENGTHENS INTO A CATEGORY 1 HURRICANE... A HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE CAYMAN ISLANDS. A HURRICANE WARNING MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION. INTERESTS IN CUBA AND JAMAICA SHOULD MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF PALOMA. FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED...

It's kind of hard to justify using tax payer money, from the State of New York, on a trip to beautiful St. Maarten in the Caribbean. So N.Y. Gov. David Paterson has decided to use campaign cash to attend the Caribbean Multinational Business Conference. The conference takes place at the The Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino, a "destinations within a destination," that just happens to feature the island's hottest nightclub, Q-Club; the world-class Good Life Spa, and the Vegas-style Casino Royale, where you can live out your James Bond fantasies. The casino has 300 slots and a panoply of...

Hess Corp. has begun preparatory work for the construction of a multibillion dollar refinery in St. Lucia, according to a senior government official. "Quite a substantial amount of money has been committed to the feasibility studies, and the studies undertaken so far conclude that there will be no problems putting in the refinery," said Guy Joseph, communications and works minister. "From all indications things look very good because I don't think Hess would spend this kind of money in feasibility studies and all that for nothing," Joseph told Caribbean Media Corp. (CMC). He said the refinery, expected to cost more...

SAN JUAN (Reuters) - Hurricane Omar strengthened on Wednesday as it bore down on Puerto Rico and the small islands of the northeastern Caribbean, and could be a "major" storm by the time it reaches them, U.S. forecasters said. The 15th tropical cyclone of a busy Atlantic hurricane season formed north of the Dutch island of Curacao on Tuesday, briefly preventing Venezuela from loading tankers with crude oil and knocking out power at the OPEC nation's 200,000 barrel-per-day Puerto La Cruz refinery. The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted Omar would grow into a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson...

Trinidadian Joseph Aboud, accompanied by a prominent lawyer, yesterday turned himself over to the police for questioning into the recent Regent Street arms bust, but the other two men wanted in connection with the discovery remained at large up to press time. Stabroek News understands that the 31-year-old contacted the lawyer early yesterday morning saying that he had just returned from the interior and wanted to turn himself in. Police last Friday issued wanted bulletins for Aboud, businessman Clayton Hutson and 23-year-old Frankie Ross for questioning with regard to the cache of high powered guns, a large quantity of ammunition...

Excerpt - The Northern Fleet heading to Venezuela Order warships Northern Fleet went to the ocean trip, which will take place ships in ports of entry of Venezuela. The military stressed that this action was not politically motivated Moscow. September 22. INTERFAX.RU - Russia is determined to step up military cooperation with Caracas: Monday detachment of Russian Northern Fleet warships went to the ocean trip, which will take place ships in ports of entry and Venezuela held in conjunction with a fleet of the country's teachings. "The squad is to ship nuclear missile cruiser" Pyotr Veliky ", a large anti-submarine...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will send a nuclear-powered battleship to the Caribbean for a joint naval exercise with Venezuela, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The maneuvers later this year will be the first Russia has conducted in Washington's traditional sphere of influence since the end of the Cold War. Russia has heavily criticized the United States for sending a sophisticated command ship and two other naval vessels to Georgia, on its southern border, to deliver aid and show support for President Mikheil Saakashvili after Moscow sent troops into Georgia. Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev asked on Saturday how Washington would...

Several Russian ships and 1,000 soldiers will take part in joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea later this year, exercises likely to increase diplomatic tensions with Washington, a pro-government newspaper reported on Saturday. Quoting Venezuela's naval intelligence director, Salbarore Cammarata, the newspaper Vea said four Russian boats would visit Venezuelan waters from November 10 to 14.