18 December 2014 Last updated at 09:22
'Beginning of the end'
It started as a routine charter flight. But when the business jet landed in Venezuela, armed men loaded 47 sacks of cocaine on board and forced the crew to fly the cargo back across the Atlantic. Since then, the German pilot has been living under an assumed identity.
The airport in Valencia, Venezuela's third largest city, is also patrolled by Commando 24 of the Bolivarian National Guard. Passengers are united in their hatred for the unit, with complaints rampant on Internet forums. Some passengers report having been searched up to three times before boarding their flights. The Venezuelan secret service also has agents posted at the city's airport, Arturo Michelena International.
US-Cuba relations: Global praise for normalisation of ties
World leaders have welcomed a historic move by the US to end more than 50 years of hostility towards Cuba and restore diplomatic relations.
Leaders in Latin America and Europe praised the "courage" of US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart.
Pope Francis, who played a central role in bringing the rivals together, also congratulated both men.
They have agreed a number of measures to improve ties, including the release of prisoners on both sides.
Announcing the move, President Obama said the "rigid and outdated policy" of isolating Cuba had clearly failed and that it was time for a new approach.
Leading the praise, Pope Francis sent "warm congratulations" to Mr Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro for overcoming "the difficulties which have marked their recent history".
US executes fewer prisoners, but deaths are more brutal: report
An increase in botched executions highlight a year that had a sharp drop of state-sanctioned deaths
When students of the US death penalty look back on the year 2014 they are likely to remember it as one of the most grotesque on record, punctuated by a series of botched executions in which prisoners writhed, gasped and groaned for lengthy periods on the gurney.
But the Death Penalty Information Center, a leading chronicler of capital punishment trends in the US, notes in its annual review published on Thursday that the year was also marked by the onward decline of the controversial practice. The 35 executions carried out in 2014 marked a 10% decline compared with the previous year, and a dramatic slump from the peak of 98 judicial killings in 1999.
Though many people around the world think of the death penalty as being an American foible, the annual report points out that it has receded into a rump of hardline states. All 35 executions were carried out by just seven states, and of those 80% were accounted for by just three states – Texas, Missouri and Florida.Hopes for Ukraine peace talks resumption as Russia softens
EU and US see slight shift in Russian stance as Ukraine’s leader eyes Nato membership
Daniel McLaughlin
Momentum is building for a resumption of peace talks on Ukraine, after the European Union and United States noted an apparent softening of Russia’s stance towards the Kiev government and its conflict with pro-Moscow separatists.
Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko said a preparatory video conference should take place today and tomorrow between representatives of Kiev, Moscow, the rebels in eastern Ukraine and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. “I hope this group will be able to meet on Sunday in Minsk,” Mr Poroshenko said during a visit to Poland.
He made the announcement after a four-way call with the Russian, French and German leaders, in which the Kremlin said they agreed that talks on “implementing the Minsk pact” should resume “as soon as possible.” An agreement reached in the Belarusian capital in early September reduced but failed to halt clashes in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where fighting since April has killed more than 4,600 people and displaced about 1 million.
47 Sacks of Coke: A Charter Pilot's Run-In with Venezuelan Drug Lords
By Arndt Ginzel, Martin Kraushaar and Steffen WinterIt started as a routine charter flight. But when the business jet landed in Venezuela, armed men loaded 47 sacks of cocaine on board and forced the crew to fly the cargo back across the Atlantic. Since then, the German pilot has been living under an assumed identity.
There aren't too many places that offer better protection against criminality than an international airport. With all the video cameras, security personnel and scanners, there isn't much room for malfeasance. Furthermore, every passenger is registered, every pilot is scanned and every cleaning lady has undergone a security check.
Karl Lückert* can only smile wryly at the massive security effort. He once landed in Valencia as the pilot of a private jet of the kind often booked by CEOs, stars and the wealthy.
On Arab uprising anniversary, US back to business as usual with Egypt's military
Four years after the start of the so-called Arab Spring, the US is back to business as usual with a military regime in Egypt.
Four years ago today, frustrated Tunisian vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire and started a wave of uprisings in the Arab world that continue to reverberate to this day – though not in the way that many expected.
Sadly, the promise of what some call the Arab Spring has not come to pass anywhere yet, except perhaps in Tunisia, the small country where it all began.
Since then, a democracy protest movement has been crushed, with Saudi Arabian help, in Bahrain, the kingdom that hosts the US Fifth Fleet; Syrian protests for change have deteriorated into the world's bloodiest current civil war, with 200,000 dead, millions displaced from their homes, and the US fighting jihadis who became dominant in the uprising, not the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad.
Colombia's FARC rebels call indefinite truce |
Leftist rebels announce unilateral ceasefire as they pursue talks with Colombian government to end 50-year conflict. |
Colombia's FARC rebels have declared an indefinite, unilateral ceasefire to start on December 20, saying they will only use weapons if they came under attack by the army.
"We have resolved to declare a unilateral ceasefire and end hostilities for an indefinite period of time, which should be transformed into an armistice," said the leftist rebels' peace negotiators in Cuba, where they are in talks with the Colombian government to end the 50-year war.
"This unilateral ceasefire, which we hope will last a long time, will end only if our guerrilla units have been the object of attacks by the security forces".
We want to overcome these useless bloody episodes.
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The FARC have repeatedly called for a bilateral ceasefire as part of the ongoing peace process.
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