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©AFP/File / Mayela Lopez

Hundreds of angry Metallica fans who could not get tickets to the Bogota concert tried to storm the venue

CARACAS (AFP) - US heavy metal group Metallica has planned extensive security measures for its concert Friday at a Caracas baseball stadium after rioting fans sparked chaos and violence in Bogota.

But organizers are heeding to lessons learned during Wednesday's riots, and have called on a large contingent of police officers, civil protection officers, firefighters and private security agents to ensure an orderly concert in Caracas.

The 50,000-strong expected crowd will also have to go through metal detectors before they can enter Rinconada stadium.

Hundreds of angry fans who could not get tickets to the Bogota concert tried to storm the venue on Wednesday at Simon Bolivar park to catch a glimpse of the Californian metal legends' first concert in Colombia in 11 years. Police on horseback fought back and eventually dispersed the crowd.

Some 170 people were arrested for rioting, vandalism and destruction of property, although they were released on Thursday for lack of evidence, Bogota Metropolitan Police said. Three officers were also injured.

Police are investigating a group of fans on online social networking website Facebook that urged fans to cause disruption if they could not get tickets for the concert attended by 35,000 people.

It was not the first incident of the band's Latin American tour. In January in Santiago, a riot broke out during the concert, forcing police to use water cannons and arrest 120 people.

Friday's performance will also be the first visit in 11 years to Venezuela by James Hetfield (vocals and guitar), Kirk Hammett (guitar), Lars Ulrich (drums) and Robert Trujillo (bass).

The four California veterans are noisier and darker than ever, doing what they know best -- with thrashing guitars and howling vocals at a heart-stopping pace -- after releasing their first studio album in five years in September 2008.

It is the last leg of a Latin American tour that took the group to Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile and Argentina. On Saturday, Metallica performs in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The group then pursues its "Death Magnetic" tour in Europe, performing in Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Northern Ireland, Hungary, Croatia, Portugal, France, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania. It will also make stops in Israel and Turkey.

©AFP/File / Fred Dufour

China has ousted the US as Bordeaux's number one client outside Europe

BORDEAUX, France (AFP) - China's seemingly unquenchable thirst for wine has ousted America as Bordeaux's number one client outside Europe, latest figures showed Friday.

With overall exports down a large 23 percent in 2009, vintners are now looking to the East to drain their cellars.

"China has become our first client outside the European Union," said Alain Vironneau, president of the CIVB, Bordeaux's wine trade body, in a press conference, hailing both Hong Kong and China as "dynamic".

China's buying power comes at a particularly opportune moment as France's leading wine region struggles to survive the economic crisis.

"Several hundreds of vineyards are in peril due to insufficient cash", said Vironneau, emphasizing that the wine trade was made up of small businesses, many outstanding performers, but lacking support from France's banking sector.

"The crisis that the wine sector is going through is tied directly to the economic crisis."

Despite a slight increase in export sales over the last three months, Vironneau said 2009 had been "catastrophic" for the region, and any recent sales activity fell short of making up for a year of losses.

Bordeaux exported 206 million bottles in 2009, generating 1.29 billion euros. This represents a 14 percent drop in volume, and a 23 percent decrease in value.

The hardest hit markets were some of Bordeaux's most trusted -- the United States, Britain and Belgium, which dropped 44 percent, 33 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

While the United States still outpaces China in terms of value at 139 million euros, it slipped to the number five position in volume, surpassed by China, where consumers are rapidly integrating wine into their lifestyle.

©AFP/File / Michel Gagne

China's seemingly unquenchable thirst for wine has ousted America as Bordeaux's number one client outside Europe

In 2009, sales to China increased by 40 percent to 74 million euros, with volume increasing by an impressive 97 percent. Sales to Hong Kong, sparked by the wine boom following the elimination of import duties on wine in 2008, increased by 46 percent to 109 million euros, with a 24 percent increase in volume.

"The wine boom in China started three years ago and grows each year at an impressive rate," wine merchant Jean Pierre Rousseau, Managing Director of Diva, told AFP. "Before that it was Lafite, Lafite, Lafite. Now they buy petits chateaux, crus bourgeois and grands crus in volume."

The Chinese market is expanding so rapidly that everyone is getting in on the act.

"One of our good clients in China is the Volvo importer for the country," said Rousseau. "He's done a very good job with wine."