VENEZUELA
CARACAS — Venezuela’s National Assembly president said his Twitter account was taken over in an online attack that unleashed a series of bogus messages saying a coup was under way.
Diosdado Cabello, a close ally of President Hugo Chavez, said on state television that his account has been blocked to prevent more false messages, later saying that he had recovered control of the account.
An initial message on the account Saturday said that factions of the national intelligence agency and the military were rising up against the government while Mr. Chavez “is in Cuba on the verge of death.” Other messages called for Mr. Chavez’s supporters to “defend the revolution” outside the presidential palace.
One message called for Defense Minister Henry Rangel Silva to “execute the squalid ones,” a term Mr. Chavez uses for his adversaries. It added that “if the revolution is in danger there will be blood.” The message accused opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles of plotting the coup.
The tweets circulated widely until state media and government officials announced that Mr. Cabello’s account had been seized.
CUBA
Power failure plunges island into darkness
HAVANA — Millions of people were plunged into darkness Sunday when power went out across a large swath of western Cuba.
The outage affected a wide area including the capital, home to about 2 million people, and the popular beach resort of Varadero.
On a humid, sweltering, late-summer Caribbean night, it knocked out air-conditioning units and electric fans.
“We were on our balcony waiting for our TV program,” said Richard Laredo, 47, a Havana resident who quickly transferred food from the refrigerator to the freezer. “Nobody knows what happened, but people are worried about what they have in their refrigerators.”
There was no immediate word on what caused the blackout, which struck a little after 8 p.m. in the middle of the nightly news broadcast on state television.
Calls to the electric system’s headquarters met busy signals. Officials in the national government were not immediately able to offer an explanation.
Electricity began coming back on after about five hours in Havana.
State radio said power was gradually being restored and urged people not to use power-hungry appliances.
Other cities in central and eastern Cuba also had brief outages.
CANADA
Government will revoke citizenship of 3,100 people
TORONTO — The Canadian government says it has begun the process of revoking citizenship from 3,100 people it says obtained it fraudulently.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Monday that in most of these cases, applicants paid a representative to prove they were living in Canada for the period of time required to establish residency when they were, in fact, living abroad.
The government says it also is investigating thousands of others who may have lied to obtain or maintain permanent residency. Mr. Kenney said anyone caught committing fraud will be stripped of citizenship and residence status.
The minister said the actions are the result of a three-year crackdown on immigration fraud.
He said federal agencies so far have removed or denied admittance to more than 600 former permanent residents linked to the investigations.
Mexico
Leftist leader leaves party after election results upheld
MEXICO CITY — Addressing 100,000 followers in Mexico City, leftist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called Sunday for the formation of a new party after losing elections he denounced as fraudulent.
As the crowd chanted “revolution” and “president,” Mr. Lopez Obrador refused again to recognize Enrique Pena Nieto as president-elect, repeating charges that his rival’s party bought votes in the July 1 election.
“There is still no democracy in Mexico,” said Mr. Lopez Obrador, who called the rally in the capital’s main square after the electoral tribunal rejected his bid to overturn the election results last month.
Mr. Pena Nieto, whose Institutional Revolutionary Party ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century, won 38.2 percent of the vote, compared to 31.6 percent for the former Mexico City mayor — a margin of 3 million votes.
Mr. Lopez Obrador claims that the PRI, which governed Mexico with an iron grip from 1929 to 2000, bought 5 million votes and violated campaign spending rules in order to secure victory.
He said he will break ties with the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution and focus on his work with the Movement of National Regeneration.
Venezuela
No evidence of massacre found in Amazon village
IROTATHERI — Venezuelan officials and journalists investigating reports of a possible massacre of Yanomami Indians at a remote village in the Amazon have found people peacefully cooking plantains over a communal fire but no sign of any killings.
Yanomami in the village of Irotatheri spoke with journalists through a guide, who translated their accounts that there had been no violence.
The government flew in journalists by helicopter after a report of killings in the community.
Leaders of the Horonami Yanomami Organization said last month that people from a nearby village had visited Irotatheri and reported a mass killing of unknown proportions. Group leader Luis Shatiwe said by phone on Sunday that he thinks it’s still possible there might have been violence in another community.
• From wire dispatches and staff reports
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