Venezuela

Exxon Mobil Corp. won a round in its bitter fight against Venezuela's state oil company Thursday as courts in several countries said they would freeze $12 billion in international assets held by Petroleos de Venezuela. Last year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nationalized a heavy oil field in eastern Venezuela, and Exxon Mobil has been seeking to recover the value of its investment in the site ever since.

Oil companies under pressure from a wave of nationalization worldwide will probably remain on the sidelines of Exxon Mobil Corp.'s legal fight with Venezuela before launching into a similar battle, analysts said Friday. The biggest U.S. company has won court orders to freeze as much as $12 billion of Venezuela's oil assets around the globe as it fights for compensation for a project lost in President Hugo Chavez's nationalization drive.

Venezuela's state oil company reportedly moved to protect its assets from Exxon Mobil Corp.'s legal reach Monday as experts speculated that the South American energy giant may be suffering a severe cash shortage. Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, instructed its traders to deposit oil receipts with UBS bank in Switzerland, the Reuters news agency reported Monday. The move follows Exxon Mobil's victory last week persuading U.S.

Venezuela on Tuesday suspended all commercial relations with Exxon Mobil Corp., including any deliveries of crude and oil products, amid a bitter dispute over the nationalization of the U.S. oil giant's heavy oil field. The move comes days after Exxon Mobil won backing from courts in the United States, Britain and the Netherlands to freeze as much as $12 billion in assets belonging to the Venezuelan state oil company as part of its strategy to recoup its investment.

More than 100 celebrities, including singer Shakira and soccer star David Beckham, have backed a Spanish pop star in a dispute with Venezuela over a concert that was canceled after his criticism of President Hugo Chavez. The Latin Grammy music awards organization also supported Alejandro Sanz, one of Latin America's most popular singers, saying cancellation of the concert smacked of censorship. Actress and singer Jennifer Lopez, singer Ricky Martin and actress Penelope Cruz also signed a letter protesting Venezuela's decision.

She went from night-shift airport cop to pinup girl. From chilly anonymity to red-hot notoriety. Next up: The "suitcase girl" is in line for a TV ice-skating gig. "I never imagined anything like this would happen," Maria del Lujan Telpuk told the Argentine edition of Playboy in an interview that accompanies her appearance on the cover this month. "And all for a suitcase that somehow put me into the middle of a rivalry of nations."

An airliner with 46 people aboard went missing and probably crashed in a remote mountainous region soon after taking off Thursday from the Andean city of Merida, authorities said. Mountain villagers reported hearing a loud noise that they thought could have been a crash after the twin-engine plane took off for this capital city, roughly 300 miles away, Civil Defense official Gerardo Rojas said.

Father Acacio Belandria says openly what others in this run-down town in southwestern Venezuela are afraid to: Colombian rebels are all over the place. The 78-year-old Jesuit priest says his parishioners are increasingly complaining of extortion, kidnapping threats and killings by the leftist guerrillas, and that Venezuelan armed forces and President Hugo Chavez are either unable or unwilling to stop them.

Ecuador and Venezuela said Sunday that they were moving thousands of troops to Colombia's borders, a day after Colombian forces killed a leftist rebel leader in Ecuadorean territory. Bogota later charged that high officials in Ecuador met recently with the slain rebel, Raul Reyes, to accommodate the guerrillas' presence there.

Even as relations remained tense between Colombia and Venezuela, there were signs Wednesday that the Andean region's most serious crisis in recent years might be easing. In Washington, the Organization of American States passed a consensus resolution that used mutually acceptable language to rebuke Colombia for having violated Ecuadorean sovereignty Saturday in a raid that killed a high-ranking rebel leader and 16 others.