Americas

Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver is touting the Keystone pipeline to congressional energy leaders and the State department.

Jamaican authorities have agreed to extradite convicted scammers who prey on American seniors following a Senate probe, the U.S. ambassador to Kingston said.

The promise follows a hearing by the Senate's aging panel last month into scams that fool seniors into handing over money in exchange for a bigger pay-off in the form of fictitious lottery winnings. The scam has hit the home states of chairman Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine) particularly hard.

The Jamaican Senate passed legislation shortly after the hearing to prosecute the scammers, who fleece American seniors of an estimated $1 billion a year. The United States is Jamaica's biggest trade partner and its main source of tourists, making good relations between the two countries crucial.

The State Department on Tuesday vehemently denied the United States was considering sanctions against Venezuela after the oil-rich country threatened to cut energy exports to the U.S.

Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Roberta Jacobson told CNN's Spanish channel over the weekend she did not know either way if the Obama administration would consider sanctions if the country does not have a full recount of last week's disputed presidential election. Foreign Minister Elias Jaua responded with a promise to retaliate if that happens, prompting State Department Spokesman Patrick Ventrell's remarks on Tuesday.

“I think the Venezuelan side may have looked at that … and read into [it that] we're considering something,” Ventrell said at his daily press briefing. “I'm saying that that's not something that we're currently contemplating at this moment.”

The court said the administration must release the names of graduates of a training camp for the Latin American military.

Secretary of State John Kerry says he isn’t wading into the State Department’s review of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.

At least not yet.

“I am staying as far away from that as I can now so that when the appropriate time comes to me, I am not getting information from any place I shouldn’t be, and I am not getting engaged in the debate at a time that I shouldn’t be,” Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

Kerry noted the decision would ultimately come to him, but that until then the various steps of the review process aren't complete. “It is not ripe,” he said.

The Obama administration has not decided whether to recognize Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela's new president, Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday. 

Opposition candidate Enrique Capriles has asked for a complete recount, citing irregularities. Election officials have denied the request and Maduro, the acting president, is expected to be sworn in on Friday.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) has called on the administration not to recognize Maduro, a move that would be sure to worsen already strained relations with the oil power. Asked if he supported her stance, Kerry answered “I can't give you a yes or no answer on that.”

“Obviously if there are huge irregularities, we're going to have serious questions about the viability of that government,” Kerry said during a hearing on the president's 2014 budget. “But that evaluation has to be made, and I haven't made it yet.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) signaled that he might back off plans to hold a hearing on the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.

Menendez had told The Hill last month that he was “sure” his committee would examine the State Department's review of the proposed project.

But on Tuesday, he told The Hill that he is “open to the possibility of it.”

Spokesman Jay Carney congratulated the "peaceful and orderly" vote but declined to recognize Hugo Chávez's successor until a recount.

On Sunday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) blasted rapper Jay-Z for his recent trip to Cuba with his pop star wife Beyonce.

Secretary of State John Kerry will be collecting on a Twitter bet with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird after the U.S. women's hockey team bested Canada in Tuesday's women's world hockey championship.