The alleged presence of Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Nicaragua without "justification" has caused tensions within the Israeli community in the country. According to a report by the Jewish News Agency (JNA), the arrival of 30 Iranian Revolutionary Guards has be confirmed. Gerald Smith, the president of the Israeli Congregation of Nicaragua, disclosed the revolutionay guards' arrival in nicaragua and their failure to register with the immigration authorities to the JNA. ...

Israeli concern about Teheran's inroads into Latin America emerged at a meeting Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni held with her visiting El Salvadoran counterpart on Tuesday, during which she warned that South America was fast becoming a platform for spreading Iranian ideology. Iran is searching for openings, and countries it can penetrate, to compensate for the vulnerability created by the [economic] sanctions [against it]," Livni told Marisol Argueta de Barillas. "We are witness to...

CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of the United States, late Monday slammed "very bad signals" from U.S. president-elect Barack Obama that he said were "disrespectful" to Iran. "Iranian President "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent him a letter. The reply wasn't good. It was disrespectful. Obama was unable to get away from the cliche. He spoke like (President George W.) Bush. They are very bad signs," Chavez said in a late night news...

A Libyan official says Argentina's visiting president has offered her country's help in developing nuclear energy in the North African nation. Libyan Cabinet official Mohammed al-Mesmari says the Argentine leader also signed agreements in trade, agriculture and science during her meeting with Moammar Gadhafi. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez's six-day tour of North Africa also included stops in Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria. The trip was meant in part to help ensure developing countries...

Venezuela and Iran plan to start a new university program in the South American country with a focus on teaching socialist principles. Venezuela's government says it plans to establish the University of Civilizations under accords recently signed with Iran. Deputy Minister for Academic Development Tibisay Hung says the program will begin in Caracas at the existing, tuition-free Bolivarian University. Hung tells the state-run Bolivarian News Agency that the aim is to promote discussion of...

Paris, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- The leader of Spain's Basque separatist group ETA Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina has been arrested in France, French and Spanish authorities announced on Monday. Aspiazu Rubina, 35, known by alias "Txeroki" or "Cherokee", was captured in Cauterets, a spa and ski resort in the Pyrenees in France, near Spain's autonomous Basque region. An unidentified woman was also detained. Aspiazu Rubina has been the chief of ETA military units for several years. He...

HAVANA -- Fidel Castro offers both praise and criticism for late Colombian rebel leader Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda in a new book published Thursday. "La paz en Colombia" (Peace in Colombia) represents "more than 400 hours of intense work," Cuba's former president said. The book appears nearly eight months after the founder of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, died of a heart attack at the age of 77. Marulanda, Castro said, "did...

BUENOS AIRES (JTA) -- Former Argentine officials accused of blocking the investigation into the AMIA bombing will testify before a federal judge. Ex-president Carlos Menem is among seven ex-officials who are being called on to testify in the coming days by Ariel Lijo. Others among the seven former officials on Lijo’s list are intelligence service office head Hugo Anzorregui and the judge in charge of the case, Juan Jose Galeano. Lijo is trying to find out if the officials backed away...

The new commander of the Colombian army, general Óscar González, assured yesterday that its commitment is to apply drastic sanctions to the military who incur crimes like forced disappearances or extrajudicial executions, denunciation that the position to the previous military commandant cost, Mario Montoya. The guerrilla of the CRAF celebrated Monday in an official notice the destitution of the 27 Colombian military. "The public knowledge of these facts is a triumph of the...

CARACAS -- Venezuela plans to build five military bases along its border with Colombia. Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami said the bases will help President Hugo Chávez's government fight drug smuggling, extortion and kidnapping. The bases will run along the Sierra de Perija, a mountain range in western Venezuela that follows part of its porous 1,400-mile border with Colombia. Chávez said Venezuela is doing everything possible to crack down on Colombian leftist rebels,...