Guyana

GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Opposition leaders in this South American country threatened Thursday to boycott the first municipal elections in 16 years over a plan to give a government-dominated commission control over local affairs.

MANAUS, Brazil - Brazil's president said that "gringos" should pay Amazon nations to prevent deforestation, insisting rich Western nations have caused much more past environmental destruction than the loggers and farmers who cut and burn trees in the world's largest tropical rain forest.