Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has deployed troops to the Colombian border.
From Gustavo Valdes, CNN
July 31, 2010 -- Updated 1722 GMT (0122 HKT)
(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has deployed troops to areas near the Colombian border and says he is reviewing plans for a potential war as tension between the two nations rises.
"Three nights ago I told the vice-president. It makes me sad, I confess, that I'm reviewing war plans," he said during a phone interview on the state-run VTV network.
Special forces are moving to 10 districts near the Colombian border to be prepared in case Colombian President Alvaro Uribe issues an invasion order before he leaves office August 7, Chavez said Friday.
Colombia and Venezuela are at odds over accusations that leftist rebels have found refuge in Venezuela.
Colombia says it has photographic evidence of camps belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- known by its Spanish abbreviation, FARC -- in Venezuela. Colombia made its case before the Organization of American States earlier this month and asked for international observers to be allowed into Venezuela to verify the presence of the guerrilla group.
Venezuela denied the accusations, and in response broke off diplomatic ties with Colombia.
On Friday, Chavez told VTV that the Colombian government's accusations "have become a threat against our sovereignty, [against] our people and against the revolution."
Chavez said surveys by the Venezuelan National Guard have proven that rebel camps do not exist within the country's borders.
He accused Colombian officials and right-wing paramilitary units of plotting his assassination, while the Colombian government has accused Chavez of supporting the rebels.
Despite the escalating tensions, the Venezuelan leader on Friday also expressed hope of restoring relations as soon as Colombian president-elect Juan Manuel Santos takes office. He told VTV that he hoped to meet with Santos as soon as possible, but stressed that in the meantime, "we won't be sucked into a war that is not ours."
Pakistan floods 'kill 800' people and affect a million
BBC., 31 July 2010Last updated at 14:58 GMT
The UN's Manuel Bessler in Pakistan says many areas are cut off
The worst monsoon floods in living memory have killed at least 800 people and affected one million in north-west Pakistan, a local official has said.
Rescuers are struggling to reach inundated areas where transport and communication are down.
Peshawar, the area's largest city with a 3m-strong population, is cut off.
At least 60 people have died across the border in Afghanistan where floods affected four provinces.
Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier) province, announced the latest death toll. Earlier, he described the floods as the province's worst ever.
Manuel Bessler, the head of the UN's Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA) in Pakistan, told the BBC about 1m people's lives had been disrupted.
He could not say with certainty the full scale of the emergency in Pakistan, as he was having trouble reaching his own offices in some of the worst-affected areas.
UN aid workers were helping to co-ordinate efforts to provide shelter, health care, drinking water and ready-to-eat food rations, he said.
There was concern, he added, that swollen rivers running south would carry the floods to provinces like Sindh where heavy rain was forecast in coming days.
Washed away
The government declared a state of emergency as Pakistan's meteorological department said 312mm (12in) of rain had fallen over the last 36 hours in the north-west - the largest amount for decades.
Lyse DoucetBBC News, Khyber- Pakhtoonkhwa province
Whole areas are cut off from electricity, from telephones, from roads. We simply do not know what is happening behind these barricades that have been created by these walls of water.
I am standing at the end of a highway which is now a sea of water. I can see a truck towing an ambulance through the water.
I can see a family barefoot beside me, a grandfather and grandmother carrying children on their heads, the mother and father carrying bundles on their heads.
People are using whatever means they can to try to get to high ground.
The districts of Swat and Shangla have been inaccessible with people left homeless and helpless after several rivers burst their banks, washing away villages, roads and bridges. Some 45 bridges were washed away in Swat alone.
The BBC's Lyse Doucet, who is travelling through some of the worst-hit areas, says at least half a million people remain marooned on islands of high ground, while others have taken refuge in mosques and schools.
TV footage taken from helicopters flying over the flooded landscape showed people clinging to roof-tops as raging torrents swept through the streets.
Military and rescue workers have been using helicopters to deliver essential supplies to areas that have had transport and communication links cut off.
Some 17 helicopters were in action to airlift people out of the worst affected areas on Friday and more were being deployed over the weekend.
Swathes of farmland have been inundated, and some power supplies have been cut after people were electrocuted by the water-borne current.
Many of those hit hardest by the flooding are the rural poor who live in flood-prone areas because they cannot afford safer land.
Pakistan has not made a formal request for international aid, but it is understood that it has appealed to donors to help it respond to this disaster.
Afghan effort
In Afghanistan, the national army said it had rescued 5,000 people over the past three days, using helicopters, vehicles and bulldozers.
The provinces of Laghman, Nangarhar, Kunar and Logar have all been hit by the bad weather.
There were plans to deliver food and medicine on Monday but the mountainous terrain was hindering the effort.
In Eastern Logar province, a provincial spokesman told the BBC that 10 people had been killed overnight. Nomad communities had lost tents and livestock, he added.
In Kama, Nangarhar, local resident Haji Baqi told the BBC: ''We lost all of our food.
"I lost three wheat harvests, our bridges have been destroyed. We want the government to come and help. What will people eat for the rest of the year? Where is the government? When are they going to help us.''
Greece orders military to step in as truckers vote to continue strike
Truck drivers holding Greek flags march to the Greek Parliament on July 30, 2010 in Athens. They said they would maintain a strike that has caused severe fuel shortages across the country.
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 31, 2010 -- Updated 0718 GMT (1518 HKT)
Athens, Greece (CNN) -- The Greek government ordered the country's armed forces to help deliver fuel as truck drivers voted to continue a contentious strike, state media reported.
Officials said Friday that military vehicles would be used to ensure the supply of fuel to airports, power plants and hospitals, and navy boats could help carry tanker trucks to islands, according to official news agency ANA.
Greece's 33,000 licensed truck drivers went on strike this week to protest government plans to open up their industry and issue new licenses.
The government is required to make the changes under the terms of loan packages from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
Gas stations on several Greek islands have been dry for days, and shortages of fruits and vegetables have begun, according to the news agency.
Talks between truck drivers and government officials ended in deadlock, the news agency said.
The strike has sparked tension in the Greek capital, where striking workers threw rocks and plastic bottles at the gates of the transport ministry Thursday, and police used tear gas to disperse the angry crowd.
The government issued a rare emergency order to the owners and drivers of the trucks to return to work Thursday, saying they face severe penalties -- including having their licenses revoked -- if they don't.
On Friday, the government said the truckers' refusal to comply with the order was "a grievous insult to law and order that harms society as a whole," the news agency reported.
But truckers' union president Georgios Tzortzatos has said that truck owners, who marched in the center of Athens after Friday's meeting, were not prepared to give up their licences and were determined to defend their rights.
Journalist Elinda Labropoulou contributed to this report.
Canadian fighter jets were launched this week when Russian bombers came close to probing Canadian airspace.
Canadian Forces are always prepared to “protect Canadian sovereignty” any time an aircraft approaches Canadian airspace, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Friday.
Mr. MacKay said the Russian planes, which he identified as Tu-95s — or “Bear bombers” do fly near Canadian space on occasion. But it is the “unidentified appearance” of the planes that caused concern, prompting the dispatch of Canadian CF-18 fighter jets from CFB Bagotville in Quebec.
Also, Russian planes typically fly from the west coast, near Alaska, he said. The planes that tried to probe Canadian airspace this week were flying in from the east coast. “This was a message clearly to them that we’ll have CF-18 fighter planes there to greet them every time,” the minister said.
Mr. MacKay told CTV News that Ottawa has asked countries for notice when they plan to have planes or ships near Canadian territory. “We ask for ample notice to avoid any confusion or any possibility that there will be a misunderstanding,” he said.
Points that may have failed causing the Potters Bar rail crash
The London Evening Standard.,31.07.10
Prosecutors are considering whether criminal charges could be brought over the Potters Bar rail crash after an inquest concluded that a points failure lay behind the disaster.
Rail regulators were reconsidering the case after the jurors highlighted the fact that failures to inspect or maintain the points led to the disaster, which caused the deaths of seven people.
The Crown Prosecution Service initially ruled out launching criminal proceedings, in 2005, but now said it is considering whether any new information came to light during the seven-week inquest.
It is thought either manslaughter charges, or a criminal case under health and safety laws, could be brought if sufficient new evidence was available.
Judge Michael Findlay Baker QC, sitting as a coroner, also promised to file a report expressing his concern about the risk of future deaths in similar circumstances.
Six passengers - Austen Kark, Emma Knights, Jonael Schickler, Alexander Ogunwusi, Chia Hsin Lin and Chia Chin Wu - were killed in the crash in Hertfordshire on May 10, 2002.
The seventh victim, Agnes Quinlivan, who was walking nearby, died after she was hit by debris.
More than 70 people were also injured when the 12.45pm King's Cross to King's Lynn train crashed as it reached the station of Potters Bar, where it was not due to stop, at around 1pm.
Judge Baker apologised to the bereaved families for the fact it took eight years for the inquest to be held as it concluded yesterday in Letchworth, Hertfordshire.
Following the inquest, an Office of Rail Regulation spokesman said: "We will now proceed to determine whether any criminal proceedings for health and safety offences should be brought in accordance with the Work Related Deaths Protocol."
