Uruguay ex-minister, bank chief indicted over failed airline

A court on Friday indicted the head of one of Uruguay's topbanks and its former economy minister on abuse of power charges linked to thecollapse in 2012 of the country's national airline.A judge said former economy minister Fernando Lorenzo and the current presidentof the Bank of the Republic, Fernando Calloia, would be allowed to remain freepending the start of trial.At a hearing in Montevideo, Prosecutor Juan Gomez said both men exceeded theirauthority by giving Spanish airline Cosmo a deal in October 2012 that allowed it topurchase aircraft belonging to struggling Pluna Airlines, the flag carrier of Uruguay.The arrangement allegedly was offered without determining that sufficientmeasures had been undertaken to rescue the bankrupt airline, among other"irregularities" charged by prosecutors.Cosmo was the only company to submit a bid to purchase planes belonging to Plunafor a discounted price of $13.6 million, officials said.Lorenzo resigned his post last December, after being appearing at a pretrial hearingrelated to the charges.