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Thousands protest as TV station is shut

By TIMES WIRES
Published May 29, 2007

VENEZUELA - Venezuelan police fired tear gas and plastic bullets Monday into a crowd of up to 5, 000 protesting a decision by President Hugo Chavez not to renew the license of a TV station critical of his leftist government. It was the largest of several protests that broke out across Caracas hours after Radio Caracas Television ceased broadcasting at midnight Sunday and was replaced with a new state-funded channel.

Elsewhere

Kazakhstan: Authorities have issued an international arrest warrant for the powerful son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Rakhat Aliyev, who faces abduction charges and has publicly criticized the longtime leader. Ambassador in Austria until he was fired Saturday, Aliyev said the charges were fabricated.

China: The nation's top drug regulator was sentenced to death on charges of corruption and official negligence, state media said today. Zheng Xiaoyu was fired in 2005 on charges he took up to $780, 000 in bribes to approve medicine that had not been tested for safety.

Russia: The government on Monday called for an emergency conference with Western nations next month on a key Soviet-era arms control treaty that has been a source of increasing friction between Moscow and the NATO alliance.

Sweden: Police said Monday it was impossible to tell whether a handgun recovered last year from the bottom of a lake can be linked to the investigation of the 1986 murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme because it was too damaged

[Last modified May 29, 2007, 00:45:27]