Maicao, Colombia –
On the face of it, it is just another backwater dusty town in Colombia´s north eastern frontier with Venezuela. But beyond the potholed main street, dotted with cactus plants and rubbish, lies a thriving market town. Arab traders sell electronic goods such as TVs and refrigerators shipped in from Panama. Colombian merchants trade in clothes as well as jewelery with gold and precious stones. Native Way’ùu indians sit in doorways knitting traditional dresses for artesan shops. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez last month threatened to cut trade with Colombia if presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos wins Sunday’s May 30 elections. If elected, Mr. Santos, Colombia´s former defense minister under President Alvaro Uribe, had talked about chasing FARC over the border into Venezuela . In Maicao, which lies just a 10-minute drive from Colombian´s eastern frontier with Venezuela, residents worry about damage to business from the potential spat. The town depends on trade with its neighbor. A steady stream of Venezuelans flow over the border to buy clothes, food staples, and luxury goods such as TVs. “It´s very worrying,” said one jewelery shop owner who declined to be named.”This is a frontier town which depends on the trade from Venezuela.” He does a good trade selling gold to Venezuelans, he says, an income he fears will be lost if President Chávez restricts border crossings.

Luis Ramirez imports electronic goods sold to traders here and in Venezuela. He doesn´t believe Chavez´s threat to close the border between Colombia and Venezuela, an import dependent nation that relies heavily on food and other goods from Colombia. “They´d die from hunger,” he laughs.

Chávez briefly closed the border with Colombia in 2009, and sent Venezuelan troops to the border in 2008 after Colombia raided a FARC rebel camp in Ecuador, an incursion he feared would be repeated in Venezuela. Presidential candidate Santos is running neck and neck in the polls with rival Antanas Mockus, the Green Party candidate, a moderate leftist whom critics have likened to Chávez. One man here says he fears Colombia will fall under the spell of Chávez´s Socialist ideology if Mr. Mockus wins. “He´s a leftist as well and he´ll enter into dialogue with Chávez,” says Nelson Diaz, “he has the same politics and idealism of Chávez and he´ll let it enter here.” The mathemician has dismissed any the likeness to Chávez.

FARC guerrillas which once held sway over vast swathes of Colombia have been pushed to remote rural outposts by Mr. Uribe´s military drive against the leftist rebels, gaining him huge popularity in Colombia. Santos is seen as the heir apparent to take on the security mantle. The former defense minister spearheaded a 2008 rescue of 15 hostages including three Americans from FARC captivity. Mockus is calling for dialogue with the FARC, if he steps into the presidential shoes. Critics say he lacks the tough edge of Santos to keep the guerrillas at bay.

The candidate, who is popular with youth groups for his pro-education policies, says his two tenures as Bogotá mayor prepared him for the task. “Santos had his successes, yes, but I too had success while mayor, deflecting terrorist attacks against the city and strengthening the police,” he says during a recent campaign stop in nearby Riohacha, the La Guajira capital. “The challenge – it’s a labor and a calling that doesn’t intimidate me,” he adds. Many rebels on the run from the military are holed-up along Venezuela´s 2,200 kilometer porous frontier with Venezuela and sheltered by Chávez, critics say. Chávez denies the claims. But one merchant who runs his jewelery business in Maicao from Miami, who fled Colombia after FARC guerrillas threatened to “kill me or kidnap me,” he says, is sure the leftist rebels are hiding just over the border. “They have protection from the government of Venezuela. They help the FARC a lot and give them refuge,” says Israel Hernando, by telephone from Miami. For now, he hopes Venezuela and Colombia can resolve their differences for the sake of the folk in this frontier town who enjoy good relations with their neighbors. “We are brothers. We’ve always been there for each other.”

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WEST POINT, N.Y. – Since a car bomb blinded Capt. Scott Smiley in Iraq, he has skied Vail, climbed Mount Rainier, earned his MBA, raised two young boys with his wife, won an Espy award and pulled himself up from faith-shaking depths.

Smiley, 30, has snagged attention for his big accomplishments. But the daily ones are telling, too, including the recent tour he gave of his staff’s offices at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he plans to attend President Barack Obama’s address of the Class of 2010 on Saturday.

Unable to see the path around the workers’ cubicles, Smiley stepped forward with a joke to the camouflage-clad officers he was showing around: “I walk around, and when I hit things, I move,” he said.

An aide trailing him said softly, “Turn right, sir,” at a doorway. Smiley turned.

Smiley, of Pasco, Wash., is one of only a handful of soldiers who chose to remain on active duty after being blinded by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, a practice that’s rare but one that military officials say benefits both parties.

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WARSAW, Ind. – Two young friends from a quiet, middle-class neighborhood in northern Indiana wanted to run away to Arizona so badly, prosecutors say, that they gunned down a stepfather who stood in the way of their plans.

The two alleged triggerman — ages 15 and 12 — hadn’t shown any signs of violence before the older boy’s 49-year-old stepfather, Phillip Danner, was shot to death in his home last week, according to neighbors and family members who testified at a hearing Thursday in which a judge ruled the boys would be tried for murder as adults.

But sheriff’s Detective Jonathan Tyler testified that the boys and two of their friends, who didn’t take part in the actual slaying, plotted for at least a month to kill Danner, so they could run off to Arizona.

On the day of the slaying, the boys met at a park before going to the older boy’s home near Lake Wawasee, between Fort Wayne and South Bend, where he had gathered two of Danner’s handguns, Tyler said. The two defendants waited in the living room until Danner appeared in a kitchen doorway, Tyler said, then shot him four times — once in the eye, once in the wrist, and twice in the chest.

Neighbors and family members who testified Thursday said the 15-year-old and 12-year-old were good students who stayed out of serious trouble at school. The worst trouble either had been in came last year when the 15-year-old was put under juvenile court supervision for four months after he shot a BB gun at a neighbor riding a lawn mower.

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WARSAW, Ind. – A judge ruled Thursday that a 15-year-old boy and his 12-year-old friend should be tried for murder as adults in the shooting death of the older boy’s stepfather, saying the state’s juvenile court system wasn’t equipped to handle such serious cases.

Kosciusko County Superior Court Judge Duane Huffer issued his ruling after nearly two-hours of testimony from law enforcement officials and relatives of the two boys.

Defense attorneys argued the boys would be better served in the juvenile system, but Huffer, who has 13 years of experience as a juvenile court judge, said it was not equipped to handle such cases.

“The act alleged was violent and unprovoked,” the judge said.

The Associated Press generally does not identify juveniles charged with crimes.

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