Battle for Venezuela goes in street, online

Battle for Venezuela goes in street, online

SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela

The battle for Venezuela is being fought as vigorously online as in the streets, with authorities cutting off Internet service to a strife-torn university city and blocking selected websites and a “walkie-talkie” service widely used by protesters.

Internet connectivity was gradually restored to San Cristobal, capital of the western border state of Tachira, on Friday morning after an outage of more than 30 hours that also affected smartphones.

Soldiers patrolled the streets after another night in which police firing tear gas broke up protests just as they had the night before, when Internet service was cut. A local TV journalist, Beatriz Font, reported hearing gunshots.

Italy gets youngest prime minister, 39

ROME

Matteo Renzi will be sworn in as Italy’s youngest prime minister ever today after he cobbled together a government he says will change the face of the country’s politics and economy.

Renzi, the 39-year-old leader of the center-left Democratic Party, unveiled his government Friday and said the broad coalition will bring hope to the economically stagnant country.

After formally accepting the mandate to form the government, Renzi said he will waste no time in enacting reform.

“We aim tomorrow morning to immediately do the things that need to get done,” he said.

Renzi had been serving as Florence mayor when he engineered a power grab last week to effectively force fellow Democrat, Enrico Letta, to step down after 10 months at the helm of a fragile, often-squabbling coalition.

Obama, Dalai Lama meet at White House

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama welcomed Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to the White House on Friday even as China warned that the meeting would hurt the relationship between the two nations.

Obama spoke to the Dalai Lama for nearly an hour, praising him for his commitment to peace and nonviolence and expressing his support for his “middle way” approach of neither assimilation nor independence for Tibetans in China.

Detroit blueprint seeks blight removal

DETROIT

Detroit’s comprehensive bankruptcy reorganization blueprint calls for shedding billions of dollars in debt, spending more than $500 million for blight removal and investing another $1 billion to improve city services.

The city’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy “plan of adjustment” — filed Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court — details offers to more than 100,000 creditors, and a “disclosure statement” reveals Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s plan to dramatically reshape the city’s bureaucracy.

Suicide bombing

JOHNANNESBURG

A suicide car bomber attacked the Somali presidential palace in Mogadishu on Friday, triggering a massive explosion, before about 10 heavily armed gunmen jumped out of two more vehicles and opened fire.

Vindicator wire reports