President Hugo Chavez has threatened to imprison the popular governor of Venezuela’s western Zulia state for allegedly plotting to kill him.

Argentina coach Alfio Basile has included Juan Roman Riquelme but omitted Hernan Crespo from his list of 20 foreign-based players in his squad for World Cup qualifiers against Chile and Venezuela.

Political opponents of Hugo Chavez called off their primary election and joined forces behind a popular state governor as their top choice to challenge the Venezuelan president in December.

VENEZUELAN investigators yesterday picked through the wreckage of a plane that crashed with 160 people on board, trying to determine what caused the engines to fail and sent the jet plunging from the sky in the country’s deadliest air disaster in history.

France’s foreign minister said today it could take time to identify the bodies of the passengers on the West Caribbean Airways plane that crashed in Venezuela, killing all 160 aboard.

Venezuelan investigators are picking through the shattered wreckage of a plane that crashed with 160 people on board, trying to determine what caused the engines to fail and sent the jet plunging from the sky in the country’s deadliest air disaster in history.

EARLY indications suggest the plane that crashed in Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board, may have experienced engine trouble.

OPPONENTS of President Hugo Chavez piloted motor boats around oil tankers moored off the Venezuelan coast to show support for strikers on board in a new demonstration yesterday, hours after one million people marched through the capital demanding the president step down.