CARACAS, Venezuela (UPI) -- Cancer-stricken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was sent home to die after doctors in Cuba could do nothing more for him, Spain's ABC newspaper reported. The 58-year-old leader -- who returned to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, at 2:30 a.m. Monday and was rushed to a downtown military hospital after being treated in Havana for complications following Dec. 11 cancer surgery -- is now receiving palliative care after doctors determined no viable cancer treatment would improve his health, the newspaper said, citing sources in contact with Chavez's medical team.

QUEENSLAND—Estimates of current rates of reef growth in the Caribbean have been described as “extremely alarming” by the leader of a team of international researchers conducting a study with Australia’s University of Queensland (UQ). According to an article published in Science Alert, UQ research indicates that many Caribbean coral reefs have either stopped growing or are on the verge of starting to erode with potential impacts to millions of people.

BRUSSELS—The European Union and the United States announced yesterday that they have agreed to pursue talks aimed at achieving an overarching trans-Atlantic free trade deal. The 27-country EU said such an agreement, first announced in Tuesday’s State of the Union address by President Barack Obama, would be the biggest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated. Any agreement could boost the EU’s economic output by 0.5 per cent—a highly desirable outcome when the EU and the US are struggling with slow growth, high unemployment and high levels of debt.

LONDON—A pledge by the Group of Seven most powerful economies to not intentionally weaken their currencies pushed stocks higher on yesterday while dragging the dollar lower against the Japanese yen and the euro. The G-7 nations, which include the US, Japan and Germany, said their economic policies should be "oriented towards meeting domestic objectives and not towards setting specific exchange rates." That was meant to ease concerns that major economies were retooling their monetary policies to specifically weaken their national currencies to help domestic exporters.

LOS ANGELES, CMC - The 55th Grammy Awards here Sunday night paid tribute to legendary Jamaican reggae superstar Robert Nesta Marley, renowned worldwide as Bob Marley. But, for a moment, it appeared as though there would hardly be any tribute to the late great reggae artist when about two-thirds of a set that was supposed to honour him was used by other performers. Bruno Mars and sting kicked off the tribute by singing not anything from Marley's massive repertoire but their own songs. Mars did reggae-influenced “Locked Out of Heaven,” and Sting sang The Police's “Walking on the Moon”.