||| CRIME. Killing acquires political dimension

Student leader slain

||| The victim, Julio Soto, the president of the FCU in Zulia state, was a youth leader in the opposition party, Copei. The case highlighted Venezuela's high rate of violent crime, the leading cause of public concern. Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has ordered a full investigation. [3]

ECB holds
rates steady

The European Central Bank discussed cutting interest rates, then left them unchanged even as bank President Jean-Claude Trichet delivered a somber assessment that euro zone growth is slipping amid high inflation and the spreading financial crisis. Trichet told reporters that "economic activity in the euro zone is weakening. The economic outlook is subject to increased downside risks" – comments that led analysts to predict a rate cut is on the way. He also said that the bank’s governing council decided unanimously to leave its refinancing rate at 4.25 percent – but first weighed their choices. "We have examined two options. One, interest rates unchanged. Another one, decreasing interest rates," Trichet told reporters after the announcement. "Our unanimous conclusion is that we were right in maintaining interest rates as they are. But we examined the two options." Daniel Roland / AP Photo [8]

Brazil to buy F-18 fighter jets

  The U.S. is encouraging Brazil to buy Boeing-built F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets – one of three models selected by Latin America’s largest nation as finalists for a fleet revamp. [4]

CHILE

 Five women who spent decades searching for lost loved ones are again sifting through the photographs, birth certificates and legal files. [5]

Oil prices rebound
above $100

  Crude oil rebounded from its biggest drop in seven years after U.S. lawmakers said they intend to salvage a $700 billion bank-rescue package. [9]

NUCLEAR

 A leading Iranian envoy suggested the country could reconsider
its uranium enrichment program. [6]

Vzla, France eye nuclear cooperation

France is willing to help Venezuela develop a civilian nuclear power program, the foreign ministers of both countries said on Thursday.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also said that France would like to use Venezuela – a staunch critic of the United States – as a go-between with Iran in discussions about the Middle Eastern nation's disputed nuclear program, but that Iranian officials have so far proved unreceptive to the approach.
He said his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, agreed on the need to check the Iranian nuclear program, as officials there have not answered "the very pertinent questions posed by the International Atomic Energy Agency," the U.N.'s Vienna-based nuclear watchdog. Venezuela has pursued close relations with Iran and has defended the country against allegations that it is secretly seeking nuclear weapons.
Iran also denies the charges, insisting its nuclear program is purely civilian.
France – which along with the United States is among the toughest opponents of the Iranian nuclear program – would like to discuss the matter through Venezuela, but the "Iranians don't respond.
It's too bad," Kouchner said. [3]