RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – A Venezuelan lawyer pleaded guilty in Miami yesterday to his role in a plot to cover up the destination of a suitcase stuffed with $800,000 in cash that U.S. prosecutors say was intended as a campaign contribution from the Venezuelan government to Argentina's president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The lawyer, Moises Maionica, 36, was one of five foreigners charged in December with conspiring to silence Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson, a Venezuelan-American businessman caught carrying the suitcase by customs officials in Buenos Aires.
In a case bitterly disputed by the governments of Argentina and Venezuela, a four-month investigation led U.S. prosecutors to charge four Venezuelans and one Uruguayan with conspiracy and with acting as unregistered foreign agents of the Venezuelan government in what they said was a cover-up.
New York Times News Service
Ex-general arrested
on cocaine charges
BOGOTA, Colombia – A retired general was arrested Thursday along with other members of a gang accused of smuggling 10 tons of cocaine a month through neighboring Venezuela en route to the United States and Europe.
Former Gen. Pauselino Latorre, who once commanded army brigades in the city of Cali, was arrested along with his nephew Leobardo Latorre, a former anti-drug prosecutor who police say bribed officials.
Reuters
Danish beer sells
for $400 a bottle
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Carlsberg ads say it's “probably the best beer in the world.” At nearly $400 a bottle, it's the most expensive, anyway.
The brewer, Scandinavia's biggest, started selling a beer yesterday costing 2,008 Danish kroner ($396.47) a bottle, the price being based on the year of its introduction. The Vintage No. 1 brew will be sold at three Copenhagen restaurants, including Noma, a holder of two Michelin stars.
Bloomberg News Service
Swedish med school
kicks out murderer
STOCKHOLM, Sweden – A 31-year-old medical student convicted in a 1999 murder with neo-Nazi links has been expelled from Sweden's leading medical school in a case that sparked debate over whether a killer can become a doctor after having paid his debt to society.
The Karolinska institute, known for awarding the Nobel Prize in medicine, revoked Karl Svensson's admission to its medical program this week after an investigation into his background, the university president said yesterday.
The background check found irregularities in the high school grades he submitted with his application, which was grounds to expel him.
Associated Press
Militant leader killed
in gunbattle in India
SRINAGAR, India – An Islamic militant leader blamed for a series of bomb blasts across India was killed in a gunbattle in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, police and rebels said yesterday.
Bashir Ahmed, the rebel leader, was believed to have coordinated several attacks that killed dozens, including simultaneous blasts in three northern Indian cities in November that left at least 16 people dead, senior police official Farooq Khan said.
Ahmed, the leader of Harkat-e-jehad-e Islami, was allegedly also behind two blasts in August that ripped through crowded areas in Hyderabad, in south India, killing at least 43 people, Khan said.
Associated Press
