Venezuela is suffering its worst economic crisis in recent memory, but that doesn't seem to have stopped President Nicolas Maduro from spending $375,000 to travel to Cuba with an 80-member delegation — including musicians, dancers, relatives and friends — to celebrate the 90th birthday of Cuba's retired maximum leader Fidel Castro. When I read this news report in the Venezuelan daily El Nacional, my first reaction was to wonder whether the figures were accurate. So I called opposition Congressman Carlos Berrizbeitia, the legislator who had disclosed these figures at a National Assembly session, and asked him how he had come up with his estimate. Berrizbeitia, a member of the National Assembly's ... Read more
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<p>New Caledonia’s international airport is closed and Australians are advised to exercise a high degree of caution, as protests turn deadly.</p>