The kidnapping ordeal of Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos ended after two days when Venezuelan police commandos swooped in to rescue him in a flurry of gunfire and arrested five alleged abductors.

Ramos said he was happy and thankful to be alive, and that the final moments had been hair-raising as police and the kidnappers exchanged heavy fire in the remote mountainous area where he was being held.

Venezuelan president and cancer survivor Hugo Chavez on Sunday announced a summit in early 2012 of Latin American leaders who have beaten the disease including Brazil's current and former presidents.

The 57 year-old Chavez had surgery in June to remove a malignant tumor. After several rounds of chemotherapy, mostly in Cuba, he claimed last month that he was cancer-free.

Miss Venezuela, Ivian Sarcos, was crowned the 2011 winner of the Miss World beauty pageant on Sunday at a glittering final ceremony in London.

Wearing a pink dress with diamante studs that had giant frills slashed below the waist, the 22-year-old threw her hands to her face as she was announced the winner.

Heavy rains pounded Central America on Tuesday, where more than 80 people have died in mudslides and flooding over the past week as swollen rivers destroyed bridges and submerged roads.

Authorities have gone on high alert across the mountainous region, home to 42 million people, as the rains have shown no sign of abating.

The foreign ministers of Venezuela and Cuba are leading a delegation of leftist Latin American countries to Syria to meet Sunday with Syria's President Bashar Assad in a show of support.

The eight-member ALBA bloc's talks aim to "reject invasion and political destabilization attempts of the country by the United States and its allies," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said in state news agency AVN.

Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez on Saturday reiterated his support for ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, calling them "brothers."

"I ask God for the life of our brother Gadhafi... No one knows where Gadhafi is, I think he went to the desert," Chavez told official television VTV.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez traveled to Cuba late Saturday to begin a fourth round of chemotherapy to treat his cancer, saying it would "most likely be the last" round in the treatment.

After meeting here with visiting Bolivian President Evo Morales, on an "unofficial" visit to comfort Chavez during his ailment, the Venezuelan leader left for Cuba to begin treatment on Sunday, adding that he expects to return midweek.

Hugo Chavez expects Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to visit him after this month's U.N. General Assembly, which the Venezuelan leader will be unable to attend because of cancer treatment.

"Ahmadinejad is coming here, at last, after New York," Chavez told reporters Wednesday, without providing further details about the visit.

New Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella has described his team's clash with Venezuela in India on Friday as more than just a friendly because expectations are so high.

"It is an extremely important match both for me and the team. There are huge expectations from us back home and it is a big responsibility," Sabella told Tuesday's Times of India ahead of the match in Kolkata.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez checked in to a military hospital Saturday night to begin a third round of chemotherapy, this time getting the cancer treatment at home rather than Cuba.

Chavez walked into the Dr. Carlos Arvelo Military Hospital accompanied by his daughter Maria and aides. He said his treatment has been going well and aims to prevent reappearance of cancer cells more than two months after he underwent surgery.