Who would you believe? Not Chavez, that's for sure!

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denied an allegation that his government helped train Basque separatists trying to create an independent state. The allegations surfaced Monday, when Spanish media reported that two captured members of the outlawed Basque separatist organization known as ETA told authorities they had received arms training in Venezuela in 2008. Juan Carlos Besance and Xabier Atristain, members of an ETA cell known as Imanol, were arrested September 29.

And a Spanish judge said in March that the Venezuelan government facilitated a long-time cooperation between leftist rebels in Colombia and ETA. Chavez called the accusations a "broken record." "There's a permanent conspiracy against the true democratic processes," Chavez said Monday night on the state-run VTV network. Yes, Mr Chavez, the conspiracy is dircted by you!

El Pais and El Mundo newspapers and other Spanish news outlets reported Monday that Besance and Atristain said they met in Venezuela with Arturo Cubillas Fontan. A Spanish High Court indictment this year alleges that Cubillas has been ETA's leader in Venezuela since 1999 -- in charge of the separatist group's relations with the Colombian rebels known as the FARC. Cubillas became an official in Venezuela's Ministry of Agriculture in 2005, the indictment says.

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Has Piracy Spread to Europe's Waters? Update 7: Russian Denial

Russia denies mystery ship was carrying missiles to Iran

Russia angrily denied media reports over the weekend that a freighter seized in what was dubbed the first act of piracy in northern Europe in over 100 years was in fact carrying a secret cargo of missiles to Iran.

"This is absolutely not true," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, reacting to claims made in last week's Sunday Times (London) and elsewhere that the Arctic Sea, the ship allegedly hijacked on July 28 off Sweden's coast and released on Aug. 16 by a Russian Navy ship, was secretly carrying S-300 antiaircraft missiles to Iran. The ship's official cargo was timber bound for Algeria.

Nevertheless, rumors continue to swirl around the seizure of the Arctic Sea, not least because Russia has not been forthcoming about the results of its investigation, centering around eight men who it says hijacked the ship and are now in Russian custody.

"All will become transparent, and I hope that everyone will be convinced that the rumors you refer to are absolutely groundless," Mr. Lavrov told reporters.

Earlier this month, Mikhail Voitenko, a Russian journalist who specializes in maritime reporting, fled abroad after he said he received threats for his reporting that ship was likely being used by corrupt officials to carry weapons. Mr. Voitenko broke the story of the ships initial "disappearance" from the Baltic Sea.

Speculation that Russia's official version of events, that the pirates were simply hoping to ransom the crew and the Arctic Sea's low-value cargo, is unlikely to abate. Russia has not so far provided international access to the crew or alleged hijackers. Following the ship's capture, 11 of the Arctic Sea's crew and eight alleged hijackers were flown to Moscow. Russia dispatched three Il-76 jets – some of the largest 'heavy-lift' planes in Russia's Air Force – to return them, an odd choice when one plane would have sufficed.

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