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Another defendant a retired priest died before the case came to trial

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Another defendant, a retired priest, died before the case came to trial. The principal defendant, Jean-Marie Simonnet, 52, is a former parachute regiment officer who was once a local official of the neo-Gaullist RPR party in south-west France. "Cuban security services have neutralised many actions of this nature against President Castro and so enjoy considerable credibility,'' said Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Jose Vicente Rangel.. THE DEFENDANTS form a cross-section of provincial, conservative France: a former army officer and Gaullist party official; two doctors; a teacher; a gendarme; a builder; a photographer; and an obscure film director. The Cuban President denounced a plot to assassinate his close ally at a conference in Miami next week. President Castro, 73, said that "terrorists" funded by an exiles' group, the Cuban American National Fund (CANF), were bent on stopping Mr Chavez from pushing through a new constitution and installing himself in Caracas for the next 12 years. The CANF's spokeswoman, Ninoska Perez, called the Cuban leader's claims "so ridiculous; I don't know if it's senility or what". While Mr Chavez's opponents in Venezuela complained that Mr Castro was drumming up support like a foreign campaign manager, his cabinet took the threat seriously.

HUGO CHAVEZ, the left-wing Venezuelan President, may have beamed to crowds in Havana last month that his country and Cuba were moving "toward the same sea of happiness", but his friend Fidel Castro is warning of hazardous undercurrents. He accepted the invitation for last night's event only after his closest challenger, Senator John McCain, drew even with him in the polls in this state, which will stage the second, and key, primary election in two months' time. A new poll out yesterday indicated that Mr Bush, who holds a commanding lead in every other state, was also ahead in New Hampshire.Mr Bush spent much of the week with his advisers, preparing to convince viewers that he could hold his own, and to banish the impression that he lacks gravitas and rose to prominence thanks to family connections and money.But with 90 minutes between all the candidates, yesterday's forum turned out to be more of a talk show than a debate.. ALL EYES were on George W Bush last night as he joined the five other Republican presidential candidates for the first time in a televised debate, in New Hampshire. Mr Bush, the front-runner for his party's nomination, had elicited taunts from the other candidates for his refusal to take part in two previous candidates' debates. It was ransacked while she and her children were away, but it appears that nothing was taken. She has since left Croatia, ahead of the scheduled end of her tour of duty. The other incident occurred at the home of a woman representing the National Democratic Institute, a pro-democracy group..

His killer, believed to be a professional hitman, shot him through the armpit, where the vest did not reach.Other mysterious events add to the uneasy atmosphere in Zagreb. Two US citizens recently had their homes broken into, and the US State Department said it suspected the Croatian government may have been involved.One of the houses was the home of a US diplomat. Mr Sokota, aged 24, knew he was a marked man, and even wore a bulletproof vest for protection But that did not save him. Like Damir Dzeba, Ivan Sokota was killed in front of a Zagreb cafe. The Croatian newspaper Vecernji List said police hoped to solve at least four mafia killings with the arrests, including the murder of Ivan Sokota in 1997. Many of Zagreb's kingpins of crime fought as soldiers or paramilitaries in Croatia or Bosnia.Among the nine arrested were suspects believed to be linked to the rocket attack that killed Zoran Domini. Guns and grenade launchers are usually brought in from neighbouring Bosnia, and there is no shortage of former soldiers willing to fight in the mafia wars that have replaced the nationalist conflicts.

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