Venezuelan president scraps UN trip over 'threats'

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday he had scrapped his plan to take part in the UN General Assembly in New York to "protect my life" after purported threats on it. Maduro, just back from a visit to China, said that on a layover in Vancouver he received intelligence on what he said were "two highly serious provocations", which prompted him to scrap his UN trip. "When I got into Vancouver I evaluated the intelligence which we received from several sources. I decided then and there to continue back to Caracas and drop the New York trip to protect a key goal: safeguarding my physical integrity, protecting my life," Maduro told local media. One of the alleged provocations "had been planned against my physical integrity" and another could have involved violence in New York, the leading face of Latin America's left charged. Venezuela is the region's closest ally of Communist Cuba which regularly has charged these conservatives were plotting against their leaders, leftist policies and governments. Maduro earlier this month claimed the White House is plotting the "collapse" of his government next month by sabotaging food, electricity and fuel supplies. Maduro's predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, also made regular claims about several alleged US plots to kill him.