Thursday, December 26, 2002
Venezuela's presidentstill has wide support
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Gasoline pumps are drying up and food supplies in many places are dwindling, but President Hugo Chavez still has broad support -- especially among Venezuela's poor.
Chavez's foes launched a general strike Dec. 2 to force him to resign or allow early elections, before a possible recall vote in August.
They are betting that strangling Venezuela's oil-dependent economy will motivate Venezuelans to demand his resignation or force a vote.
But millions not widely reported on by private media, especially among Venezuela's poor and working class, insist they won't allow a return of a corrupt two-party system that Chavez displaced in 1999.
"He can't leave us. It would be terrible," said Beatriz Nunez, 51, a Caracas storekeeper who has ignored the strike led by organized labor, business leaders, civic groups and many private media.
Nunez was among those who elected Chavez to power by a landslide in 1998 and re-elected him in 2000. They still see the former paratrooper as their only hope for change in a country where the riches generated by vast oil reserves have failed to reach the masses.
Castro recoveringfrom leg infection
HAVANA -- Out of the public eye for more than a week, President Fidel Castro told Cubans in a letter published Wednesday that he is recovering from a serious infection caused by a bug bite to his left leg.
"I am fine, dear compatriots, and I feel more optimistic than ever about the future of the Revolution," the 76-year-old leader wrote in the letter, titled "Chronicle of Repose" and published on the front page of the Communist Party daily Granma.
The letter was the first public word about Castro's current illness since Saturday, when he excused himself from a session of the National Assembly, Cuba's unicameral parliament, saying doctors had ordered him to rest following an unspecified injury in his leg.
The health of Castro, who is regularly seen in public several times a week, is a constant source of speculation by Cuba watchers. Persistent rumors of ailments -- including prostate cancer, heart troubles, Parkinson's disease and stroke -- have circulated for years.
Castro's designated successor is his 71-year-old brother, Raul Castro, Cuba's defense minister.
Police search for fatherin shooting of baby girl
HOUSTON -- Police have filed capital murder charges against the father of an 8-month-old girl who was fatally shot in the chest as her mother tried to protect her.
Eladio Camacho Navarro, 38, had threatened the baby's mother with a .38-caliber revolver during a Christmas morning argument, police spokesman Martin DeLeon said.
The woman's name was not released.
DeLeon said the baby, Nayeli Navarro, was shot as her mother turned to protect the baby and herself from her common-law husband, who fled afterward.
Authorities continued searching today for Navarro, who they believe may be trying to reach Mexico. His sport utility vehicle was found abandoned in a supermarket parking lot less than 10 miles away from the home where the shooting took place.
Earthquake shakesupstate New York
REDFORD, N.Y. -- A mild earthquake shook upstate New York on Wednesday and was believed to be an aftershock of the April tremor that jolted the Northeast.
No injuries or damage were immediately reported.
The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 3.0, was reported at 1:25 p.m. and was centered in the Adirondack foothills 20 miles southwest of Plattsburgh, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
"It was a shallow earthquake," survey spokesman Butch Kinerney said.
He said it was most likely an aftershock of the 5.1 magnitude earthquake that struck on April 20. That quake collapsed roads in New York and rattled homes from Maine to Maryland.
Shirley Thomas, Black Brook town councilor, was waiting for family to arrive for Christmas when the house shook.
"It just kept rumbling and rumbling for about 10 seconds. It went on and on," she said.
Kinerney said it was not uncommon for aftershocks to be felt months after a moderate quake.
"As the earth settles, little different pieces give, and pressure will build up in a different place. And once that pressure gives way, it will build up somewhere else," he said.
The largest earthquake recorded in New York was in 1944, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It registered 5.8 and was centered in Massena, about three miles from the Canadian border.
Associated Press