Voters in Venezuela narrowly defeated a referendum on changing their constitution to abolish presidential term limits and vastly increase President Hugo Chavez’s executive powers.
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The Venezuelan National Assembly overwhelmingly approved constitutional reforms that would greatly expand the power of President Hugo Chavez and permit him to run, repeatedly, for re-election.
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Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, waived several environmental laws to resume building the Mexico border fence; meanwhile President Bush announced he will ask Congress to approve a $500 million package to help Mexico fight drug cartels, the largest international anti-drug effort by the United States in nearly a decade.
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The Department of Homeland Security announced that the completion of a $20 million “virtual fence” pilot project along the Mexican border near Tucson would be delayed because its cameras and radar were unable to distinguish people and vehicles from bushes and cows.
[not a mexican]
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Venezuela decided to turn its clocks back by 30 minutes to get more sun.
[stoked]
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US-funded herbicide aerial sprayings of coca plantations in Colombia near the Ecuador border has severely damaged the DNA of local residents, according to a new study.
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Cuban President Fidel Castro said the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay is occupied ‘illegally’ and the US must hand it over to Cuba.
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The Bush administration’s proposal to secure the nation’s borders with a high-tech “virtual fence” is likely to cost far more than the $2 billion that industry analysts initially estimated, possibly up to $30 billion, a government watchdog agency warned yesterday.
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Former congressman Tom DeLay gave a speech about abortion to a gathering of college Republicans in Washington, D.C. “If we had those 40 million children that were killed over the last 30 years,” said DeLay, “we wouldn’t need the illegal immigrants to fill the jobs that they are doing today.”
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A Mexican man was awarded Guinness Book of Record of the world’s fattest man at 1,234 pounds after losing 440 pounds. “I’m glad to be in the Guinness Book as the fattest man. I am also happy to have lost 200 kilos,” Manuel Uribe, 41, told AFP.
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New Orleans banned taco trucks.
[on the road again]
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It snowed in Buenos Aires for the first time in 89 years.
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A national association of immigration lawyers is suing the federal immigration agency for refusing to accept thousands of applications for work-based permanent visas from highly skilled immigrants who were encouraged by the government to apply.
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US federal agents guarding the American team at South America’s top soccer tournament were called “terrorists” and threatened with arrest by Venezuelan officials.
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The State Department and the immigration service abruptly withdrew tens of thousands of job-based visas they had offered last month to foreign professionals hoping to become permanent residents in the United States.
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The CIA tried to get three American mobsters to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro in the early 1960s; they failed.
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3% of Americans approve of Congress’s handling of the immigration issue.
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São Paulo became an advertisement free city, and advertisers drove back and forth in front of city hall in protest. “I think this city will become a sadder, duller place,” said Dalton Silvano, the only city councillor to vote against the laws and an ad executive, “Advertising is…an art form,” he said.
[tonydemarco]
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The Senate voted against ending debate on the immigration bill.
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Key senators in both parties and the White House announced agreement Thursday on an immigration overhaul that would grant quick legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. and fortify the border.
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