Venezuela

A Latin American border crisis triggered by the Colombian military's incursion into Ecuador to kill a rebel leader was apparently resolved Friday when Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa accepted his Colombian counterpart's apology and promise not to repeat the transgression.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is planning a government takeover of his country's cement industry, his latest effort to impose state control over key sectors of an economy battered by shortages and inflation. Chavez made the declaration during a televised cabinet meeting late Thursday. He has long accused foreign cement companies of keeping prices high and supplies tight by exporting their products to other countries while Venezuela is suffering a housing shortage.

Grimacing from contractions, expectant mother Castuca Marino had more on her mind than birth pangs. She was nervous about whether she and her newborn child would make it out of the hospital alive. Interviewed as she stood in the emergency room of Concepcion Palacios Maternity Hospital here last week, Marino had heard news reports of six infant deaths there over a 24-hour period late last month.

Venezuelan armed forces occupied 32 sugar plantations Thursday, the latest in a wave of takeovers that some say is a bid by President Hugo Chavez to regain political momentum and reverse his recent slide in the polls. The farms in Lara state were taken over by army units at the request of the Chavez government's National Land Institute, or INTI. The institute in recent years has handled the takeover of thousands of acres of farmland and turned them over to worker cooperatives.

Venezuela moved Tuesday to take a greater cut of windfall oil profits, approving a 50% tax on foreign oil companies when crude tops $70 a barrel. The tax rate would rise to 60% when the average monthly price for crude exceeds $100, according to the bill approved by the National Assembly. Revenue from the tax could reach $9 billion annually, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said. "That's why, for the executive branch, it is urgent to create this law," Ramirez said.

Venezuela accused 60 Colombian soldiers of illegally entering its territory. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said troops were intercepted yards from the nations' shared border in Venezuela's western Apure state. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced that he had asked his nation's army to investigate the charge. If true, Uribe vowed that Colombia would apologize.

Geremi Gonzalez, 33, a pitcher for five major league teams who won 11 games for the Chicago Cubs in 1997, was killed by lightning Sunday at a beach in his native Venezuela. A right-handed pitcher, Gonzalez was born Jan. 8, 1975, in Maracaibo, Venezuela. He played in the majors from 1997 to 2006 and appeared in 131 games with 83 starts, compiling a 30-35 record. His career was marred by arm trouble. After playing with the Cubs in 1997 and 1998, he was out of the big leagues until 2003, when he played for Tampa Bay. In addition to the Cubs, who signed him as an amateur free agent in 1991, and Tampa Bay, Gonzalez pitched for the Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets.

Chased by the U.S.-backed armed forces, this country's largest rebel group is now under pressure to surrender from a surprising new source -- President Hugo Chavez of neighboring Venezuela. During his nine years in office, the populist Chavez has regularly expressed support for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez blew through Russia on Tuesday, cutting business deals, griping about the United States and pumping up the friendship between two oil-rich nations. He pressed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to pay him a visit in Venezuela. He subtly ribbed President Dmitry Med- vedev, who has been widely portrayed as Putin's handpicked puppet.

Advancing his policy of taking over major foreign companies, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that he would nationalize Spanish-owned Banco Venezuela, the country's third-largest financial institution. Chavez said during an afternoon telecast that he was seizing the bank because its owner, Banco Santander, was planning to sell it anyway. The Spanish concern, which acquired the bank in 1996, had not issued a formal comment by Thursday evening.