1.   Colombian officials said Venezuelan police officials have privately said they were told to release Ballestas.

2.   Barrutiabengoa presented himself monthly to Venezuelan police authorities as required of political refugees by Venezuelan law.

3.   But the church did not report him to Venezuelan police.

4.   Chavez bristled at a recent U.S. State Department human rights report that cited extrajudicial killings by Venezuelan police.

5.   He recently bristled at a State Department report citing extrajudicial killings by Venezuelan police.

6.   It said Wednesday, however, that members of the Venezuelan investigative police unit would travel to Kingston to help complete the probe.

7.   Spouses of suspected members of the Basque separatist group, ETA, complained Wednesday of harassment and persecution by Venezuelan police.

8.   U.S. drug agents and Venezuelan police captured a Trinidadian fugitive who had been serving a life prison sentence for cocaine trafficking.

9.   Venezuelan Interior Minister Luis Miquilena then showed up, he said, saying that Venezuelan police had scoured the area but found no trace of Montesinos.

10.   Venezuelan police said they worked with Italian drug agents to free him in a raid early Monday.