A senior aide of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is facing criminal prosecution.

A judge has ordered the arrest of Mr Uribe's former chief of staff, Bernardo Moreno, for allegedly spying on judges, journalists and politicians.

It is the second such order this week. Andres Felipe Arias, a former agriculture minister, has been charged with corruption. He denies the allegations.

Alvaro Uribe left office last year.

Mr Moreno served as Mr Uribe's chief of staff for both of his presidential terms, from 2002-2010.

He now faces trial for criminal conspiracy, abuse of public office and other charges.

Mr Moreno would be jailed for at least three years, if convicted. He denies all the charges.

Mr Arias, 38, is suspected of diverting farm subsidies intended for peasant farmers to rich landowners.

He will be held at a jail in the capital Bogota while his case proceeds.

The Colombian Attorney General's office has already disqualified him from public office for 16 years because of what it deemed were irregularities in the subsidy scheme.

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A plane has crashed and broken in two on landing at Guyana's main airport in the capital, Georgetown, causing injuries but no deaths.

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The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, says he wants to open up his socialist political project to the middle classes and private sector.

Mr Chavez said his government had to convince Venezuela's middle classes they were needed.

Speaking by telephone on state television, he said he was entering a more reflective period of his life.

Mr Chavez recently underwent cancer treatment in Cuba, but plans to stand for re-election next year.

The Venezuelan leader made his comments a day after he celebrated his 57th birthday, when – appearing in yellow rather than his characteristic red shirt – he told a rally of cheering supporters that he was in no mood to leave office in the near future.

In Friday's telephone interview, Mr Chavez said the treatment to remove a tumour had led him to radically change his life towards a "more diverse, more reflective and multi-faceted" period.

He told his supporters to eliminate divisions and dogma, and end what he called the abuse of symbols such as the term "socialist".

"Why do we have to always have to wear a red shirt?" said Mr Chavez. "And the same goes for the word 'socialism'."

The president cited the example of a mayor in the governing party who inaugurated a "Socialist Avenue", which Mr Chavez described as "stupid".

"We need to reflect and introduce changes in our discourse and in our actions."

Mr Chavez, who came to power in 1999, said the private sector and the middle classes were "vital" to his political project.

He said it was a shame that attempts to be more inclusive of these groups in society had been criticised by some in official circles in Venezuela.

"Raul Castro is leading a process of self-criticism," said Mr Chavez, hinting that Venezuela could learn from the reforms being undertaken by the president of Cuba, who has made some concessions to the private sector since taking over from Fidel Castro in 2006.

Mr Chavez said his government needed to correct the perception that small businesses would be taken over by the state.

"We have to make sure no-one believes that," he said. "We have to convince them about our real project, that we need this sector and that we want to acknowledge their contribution."

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Naval forces from the US and Honduras have recovered 2.5 tonnes of cocaine from a semi-submersible craft intercepted off the Honduran coast.

Honduran General Rene Osorio said there were more than five tonnes of cocaine on the vessel, and authorities would need two days to retrieve all of it.

The vessel is submerged because the crew tried to sink it after they were intercepted two weeks ago.

Honduras is on a key route used by cartels trafficking drugs to the US.

Coast guard officials intercepted the submarine-like craft off the Caribbean coast of Honduras near the province of Gracias a Dios.

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The pilots of an Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic in 2009 lacked adequate training, French investigators have found.

"The first event which triggered it all is the disconnection of the automatic pilot following the loss of the speed indicators, very probably after they were frozen by ice crystals," said Mr Troadec.

"At this time the pilot should have initiated a procedure known as 'Unreliable IAS (indicated air speed)', a procedure which consists of taking an angle of five degrees, but the angle they took was far superior.

"That is why the plane flew upwards, the plane took a rapid vertical flight of 7,000 feet/minute… The angle they took was too much," Mr Troadec said.

The BEA report said the co-pilots in charge of the plane when the emergency began "had received no high-altitude training for unreliable IAS (indicated air speed) procedure and manual air craft handling".

The report also said that the pilots failed to alert passengers to the crisis as they struggled to regain control.

The authority issued 10 new safety recommendations, including mandatory training for all pilots in France to ensure they could handle a high-altitude stall.

A statement from Air France rejected the BEA's findings, saying that "nothing at this stage can allow the crew's technical competence to be blamed" for the crash.

"The crew on duty showed professionalism and stayed committed until the end to operating the flight. Air France salutes their courage and determination in these extreme conditions," it said.

"The altitude-loss alarm was activated and deactivated several times, contradicting the real status of the aircraft, which contributed strongly to the crew's difficulty in analysing the situation," Air France said.

Airbus said it welcomed the report and would give full support to the process, so that the industry could "benefit from any lessons to be learnt from this event".

Air France and Airbus are being investigated for alleged manslaughter in connection with the crash.

"The BEA establishes the facts and makes recommendations based on those facts," AFP quoted Environment and Transport Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet as saying on RTL radio.

"As to who is responsible, that is up to the courts," she added.

Flight AF 447 went down on 1 June 2009 after running into an intense high-altitude thunderstorm, four hours into a flight from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris.

The wreckage of the plane was discovered after a long search of 10,000 sq km (3,860 sq miles) of sea floor.

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Former army officer Ollanta Humala has been sworn in as Peru's new president, vowing to eradicate poverty and social exclusion.

"We want the term 'social exclusion' to disappear from our language and lives forever," Mr Humala said.

"Economic growth and social inclusion will march together."

Mr Humala campaigned on a pledge to increase the state's role in the economy and redistribute wealth to Peru's poor majority.

Economists Luis Miguel Castilla and Julio Velarde will be the new finance minister and central bank head respectively.

Sociologist Rafael Roncagliolo is to be foreign minister, while Afro-Peruvian music star and Grammy award-winner Susana Baca will be minister of culture.

Mr Humala indicated that he would seek to impose a windfall tax on the key mining sector to help raise revenue for social spending.

But with his party lacking a majority in Congress, he will need the support of other blocs to pass bills, including the mining tax.

Peru has been one of the top economic performers in Latin America in recent years, averaging annual growth of 7% during Mr Garcia's second term and with inflation held at under 3% a year.

But there has also been an increase in social tension and conflicts, especially over the exploitation of natural resources.

Protests, at times violent, have erupted over mining, logging and oil and gas extraction.

Another key issue facing Mr Humala is increased illegal drug production and trafficking.

Peru sees the US as a "strategic partner" in tackling this, Mr Humala has said.

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One of the grand astronomical projects of the 21st Century is open for business.

"There's nothing really magical about the number 16, but the sensitivity gain on current instruments is so great it would be a shame not to start doing some serious science with Alma," said Dr John Richer, the UK Alma project scientist based at Cambridge University.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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Two men have been found guilty of murdering Welsh honeymoon couple Ben and Catherine Mullany in Antigua.

'Silent witness'

"These two individuals can never again inflict the same anguish and devastation to any other family as they have to ours."

During the trial the jury was reminded of the testimony of one of a number of expert witnesses who said a bandana with Howell's DNA was found at Mrs Anderson's shop.

Recordings found on Mr Mullany's stolen Nokia phone were replayed, in which one of the voices identified himself as "Sample Dan" – an alias used by Martin.

Det Supt Keith Niven, who led the Metropolitan Police's investigation team, said he believed Howell and Martin had set out to kill the couple.

"The level of violence inflicted upon their victims in order to steal such low value property was incomprehensible and leads me to believe that murder was their primary intention," he said.

He added: "Ben and Catherine must have been terrified when they were awoken and confronted in their room by two strangers pointing a gun at them.

"Throughout this investigation and throughout the trial the two defendants have shown no signs of remorse not even to Ben and Catherine's parents who have been present in court."

Although Martin admitted to lying to police at first about being near the hotel, his defence team said this was only "because he was scared," the jury was told.

Antigua's Director of Public Prosecutions, Anthony Armstrong, said he "reserved the right to request the death penalty at the sentencing hearing on the 26th September"

Mr Armstrong, the prosecutor in the trial, described the evidence as compelling.

He said: "A defendant wherever he steps, whatever he leaves, will serve as a silent witness against him.

"Physical evidence cannot be wrong. Only human failure to find it, study and understand it can diminish its value."

The prosecution received help from senior British detectives who were deployed to the Caribbean island following a plea from the country's prime minister who was concerned about the impact the couple's murder would have on tourism.

UK forensics expert Dr Christopher Moynehan, who also gave evidence at a trial into the murder of BBC TV presenter Jill Dando, told the court that tests found gunshot residue on clothing belonging to Howell and Martin.

'Natural ability'

After the trial, members of the Mullany family paid tribute to the couple.

They said Mrs Mullany was destined to work in the medical profession, having harboured dreams of becoming a doctor from an early age.

She had attended Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera and was described by former teachers as an excellent pupil.

After graduating in 2002 from the University of London, she worked at numerous departments at Singleton and Morriston hospitals in Swansea as part of her training to be a GP.

Hospital officials described her as having a "natural ability to care and being very compassionate" – especially while working at the paediatric unit in Singleton.

Among the young patients she cared for was the son of Swansea City footballer Ferrie Bodde, after the youngster suffered a severe asthma attack.

The Mullanys began their honeymoon in Antigua two days after their wedding.

The couple spent their first night as a married couple camping in an unknown location. They had deliberately kept the whereabouts a secret from their family and friends – and this was why they had chosen Somewhere Only We Know by Keane as their first dance at their wedding reception.

Since their murders, the couple's families have set up a charity, the Mullany Fund, which hopes to widen participation in the field of medicine and physiotherapy by offering grants to students, many of whom are facing sharp rises in tuition fees.

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BHP Billiton has called the strike at the Escondida copper mine in Chile 'illegal', as the stand-off between the company and the miners continued.

The last time workers at the Escondida mine went on strike in 2006, the impasse continued for almost a month.

That had a huge impact on BHP's production numbers. It reported a 19% drop in Copper output during the third quarter of 2006.

The current strike is expected to cause a production loss of as much as 3,000 tonnes a day, according to some estimates.

While the two parties continue to stick to their positions, analysts said that BHP is not likely to let the strike continue for a long period.

"It is in their best interest to keep the mine producing, even if the cash costs rise in the short term," said David Lennox a mining and resources analyst with research firm Fat Prophets.

However, Mr Lennox warned that if an amicable solution is not reached soon, it could hurt BHP.

"We will see quite a dip in copper output. They are already struggling with copper production in other mines," he said.

Last week BHP reported that its copper production in the three months to June had dipped 6%, compared with the same period last year.

Mr Lennox added that a drop in copper production will have an impact on prices.

"We will start to see a little bit of nervousness in copper price as the market heads towards a period of supply constraints," Mr Lennox said.

"The longer the strike lasts, the more the nervousness will spread," he added.

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Police in one of Mexico's most violent cities, Ciudad Juarez, have accused federal colleagues of firing at them during a deadly prison riot.

City police chief Julian Leyzaola told reporters his armoured vehicle had been shot at by up to 16 federal police officers as he approached the jail.

But the federal government accused him of breaking through a cordon.

Seventeen people died when one group of inmates reportedly attacked rivals from another drug gang inside the jail.

A spokesman for the city's authorities told the BBC the attackers had used weapons seized from prison guards to carry out the massacre on Monday night.

Further revelations on Wednesday suggested weakness, disorganisation and possible corruption at the jail close to the US border.

It took security forces several hours to regain control.

"I saw a federal officer in front of my sport utility vehicle firing at me and in turning to a side, there was a group of between 10 and 15 federal officers firing at my vehicle," said Mr Leyzaola, who was uninjured.

In response, the federal public safety department issued a statement to say federal police had opened fire because Mr Leyzaola had refused to stop and identify himself.

"During an operation to prevent an escape of prisoners, he broke through the security cordon and, acting against security protocol, went through a checkpoint without stopping," the statement said.

"And for this reason his vehicle was fired upon to make it stop."

When the authorities finally regained control of the prison, they found 17 people dead, two inmates with gunshot wounds and 72 others with lesser injuries.

It is believed to be the third clash between federal and local police in the city since the start of the year.

Federal police added that two females, including a woman killed in the fighting, were found inside the prison.

Local TV footage seen by the Associated Press news agency suggests guards may have actually allowed the bloodbath to happen.

The footage reportedly shows hooded, armed inmates talking with guards, who then leave the area before inmates grab cell keys, open a door and apparently fire on those inside with a machine pistol and an assault rifle.

Julio Cesar Castaneda, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office, said it was investigating reports that even more women had entered the prison for a party held by members of one of the city's street gangs, and that most had left after the fight.

The office was also investigating reports that some prison employees may have attended the party.

Federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire called for changes at the city-run prison, saying security at state and local jails across Mexico should be "reviewed and strengthened".

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