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U.S. apologises over Chavez aide detention

WASHINGTON: The United States denied on Saturday claims by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro that he was briefly detained at a New York airport, but it said it had apologised to the Minister for the ``regrettable incident.'' Mr. Maduro said earlier he was detained for more than 90 minutes in a room at the John F. Kennedy International Airport and his travel documents had been taken away. ``There's no evidence to support any of this,'' local media quoted U.S. Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke as saying. Mr. Maduro was asked to go through a routine, secondary security screening, he said. However, U.S. acting State Department spokesman Tom Casey said later: ``We can confirm that an incident occurred at airport for which the U.S. has apologised to Foreign Minister and the Government of Venezuela.'' He did not elaborate on what prompted the incident. — Xinhua

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