Venezuelans on edge amid shifting news on Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chavez alike nervously welcomed the new year Tuesday, left on edge by shifting signals from the government about the Venezuelan leader's condition three weeks after cancer surgery in Cuba.

With rumors swirling that Chavez had taken a turn for the worse, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised interview in Cuba that he had met with the president twice, spoken with him and planned to return to Venezuela on Wednesday.

Maduro said Chavez faces "a complex and delicate situation." But Maduro also said that when he talked with the president and looked at his face, he seemed to have "the same strength as always."

"All the time we've been hoping for his positive evolution. Sometimes he has had light improvements, sometimes stationary situations," Maduro said in the prerecorded interview, which was broadcast Tuesday night by the Caracas-based television network Telesur.

"I was able to see him twice, converse with him. He's totally conscious of the complexity of his post-operative state and he expressly asked us ... to keep the nation informed always, always with the truth, as hard as it may be in certain circumstances," Maduro said.

Chavez has not been seen or heard from since the Dec. 11 operation, and officials have reported a series of ups and downs in his recovery ? the most recent, on Sunday, announcing that new complications from a respiratory infection had put the president in a "delicate" state.

Speculation has grown since Maduro announced those latest troubles, which were a sharp shift from his remark nearly a week earlier that the president had been up and walking.

In Tuesday's interview, Maduro did not provide any new details about Chavez's complications. But he joined other Chavez allies in urging Venezuelans to ignore gossip, saying rumors are being spread due to "the hatred of the enemies of Venezuela."

He didn't refer to any rumors in particular, though one of them circulating online had described Chavez as being in a coma.

Political opponents of Chavez have complained that the government hasn't told the country nearly enough about his health.

Maduro's remarks about the president came at the end of an interview in which he praised his government's programs at length, recalled the history of the Cuban revolution and touched on what he called the long-term strength of Chavez's socialist Bolivian Revolution movement.

He mentioned that former Cuban President Fidel Castro had been in the hospital, and praised Cuba's government effusively. "Today we're together on a single path," Maduro said.

Critics in Venezuela sounded off on Twitter while the interview was aired, some saying Maduro sounded like a mouthpiece for the Cuban government. In their online messages, many Chavez opponents criticized a dearth of information provided by Maduro, accusing him of withholding key details about Chavez's condition. Opposition politicians have demanded that the government provide the country with a full medical report.

Even some of his supporters said on Tuesday that they wished they knew more.

"We're distressed by El Comandante's health," said Francisca Fuentes, who was walking through a downtown square with her grandchildren. "I think they aren't telling us the whole truth. It's time for them to speak clearly. It's like when you have a sick relative and the doctor lies to you every once in a while."

Chavez has been fighting an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer since June 2011. He has declined to reveal the precise location of the tumors that have been surgically removed. The president announced on Dec. 8, two month after winning re-election, that his cancer had come back despite previous surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

"There's nothing we can do except wait for the government to deign to say how he is really," said Daniel Jimenez, an opposition supporter who was in a square in an affluent Caracas neighborhood.

Jimenez and many other Venezuelans say it seems increasingly unlikely that Chavez can be sworn in as scheduled Jan. 10 for his new term.

Venezuelans rang in 2013 as usual with fireworks raining down all over the capital of Caracas. But some of Chavez's supporters had long faces as they gathered in Bolivar Plaza on Monday night holding pictures of the president. A government-sponsored New Year's Eve celebration there had been called off, and instead his supporters strummed guitars and read poetry in Chavez's honor.

Maduro didn't discuss the upcoming inauguration plans, saying only that he's hopeful Chavez will improve.

Chavez has been in office since 1999 and was re-elected in October, three months after he announced that his latest tests showed him to be cancer-free. If he dies or is unable to continue in office, the Venezuelan Constitution says a new election should be held within 30 days.

Before his operation, Chavez acknowledged he faced risks and designated Maduro as his successor, telling supporters they should vote for the vice president if a new presidential election was necessary.

The vice president said that Chavez "has faced an illness with courage and dignity, and he's there fighting, fighting."

"Someone asked me yesterday by text message: How is the president? And I said, 'With giant strength,'" Maduro said. He recalled taking Chavez by the hand, saying "he squeezed me with gigantic strength as we talked."

___

Associated Press writer Christopher Toothaker contributed to this report.

___

Ian James on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ianjamesap

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelans-edge-amid-shifting-news-chavez-213322357.html

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Just listened to Ms. Mezaun's radio interview over.. - InvestorsHub

SmooveWorld ? Tuesday, January 01, 2013 4:17:15 PM

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World looks to 2013 after violence, economic woes

NEW YORK (AP) ? As the world rang in 2013 with spectacular fireworks displays and showers of confetti, the specter of economic uncertainty and searing violence dimmed some festivities and weighed on the minds of revelers hoping for a better year.

"With all the sadness in the country, we're looking for some good changes in 2013," Laura Concannon, of Hingham, Mass., said as she, her husband, Kevin, and his parents joined hundreds of thousands of people who celebrated the new year in Times Square on Monday.

Matias Dellanno, 37, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, stood in the middle of the square with his wife and 3-year-old son. His eyes caught the multicolored lighting illuminating the square just before midnight.

"I feel a completely new hope for 2013," he said. "It can't be any worse than last year, when my business lost clients. It was a rough year for everyone. The new year has to be better!"

Revelers with New Year's hats and sunglasses boasting "2013" packed the streets in the 35-degree cold to count down the first ball drop in decades without Dick Clark, who died in April and was honored with his name printed on confetti and on one of the crystal panels on the Times Square ball.

Syracuse University student Taylor Nanz, 18, said she and a friend had been standing in Times Square since 1:20 p.m. Monday. They hadn't moved from their spot because "if you leave, you lose your place," she said.

"It's the first time - and the last time," she said. "Never again."

Security in Times Square was tight, with a mass of uniformed police and plainclothes officers assigned to blend into the crowd. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly claimed that Times Square would be the "safest place in the world on New Year's Eve," and officers used barriers to prevent overcrowding and checkpoints to inspect vehicles, enforce an alcohol ban and check handbags.

In the state capital of California, a midnight fireworks show was canceled after a fight at a Sacramento restaurant ended with two people fatally shot and three injured.

But in Las Vegas, police and about 300 Nevada National Guard troops kept the night peaceful, with only 13 people arrested. Sin City hosted sold-out concerts featuring Beyonc?, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Black Keys, and revelers jammed the Strip to watch as seven hotel-casinos unleashed identical eight-minute rooftop fireworks displays at midnight.

The celebrations on the West Coast took place nearly 24 hours after lavish fireworks displays lit up skylines in Sydney, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

In Myanmar, about 90,000 people gathered in a field to watch a countdown for the first time, according to organizers. The reformist government that took office in 2011 in the country, long under military rule, threw its first public New Year's celebration in decades.

In the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai, multicolored fireworks danced up and down the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated with a vespers service in St. Peter's Basilica to give thanks for 2012 and look ahead to 2013. He said that despite all the death and injustice in the world, goodness prevails.

In Russia, spectators filled Moscow's Red Square as fireworks exploded near the Kremlin. In Rio de Janeiro, revelers dressed head-to-toe in white as dictated by Brazilian tradition flooded onto Copacabana beach for a concert.

In London, the chimes of the clock inside the Big Ben tower counted down the final seconds of 2012 and fireworks dazzled the sky above Parliament Square. Streamers shot out of the London Eye wheel and blazing rockets launched from the banks of the River Thames.

But parts of Europe held scaled-back festivities and street parties, the mood was restrained - if hopeful - for a 2013 that is projected to be a sixth straight year of recession amid Greece's worst economic crisis since World War II.

Festivities were canceled across New Delhi, the Indian capital, amid days of mourning and reflection about women's safety after a rape victim died on Saturday.

In Times Square, some revelers checked their cellphones for news of lawmakers' tentative deal to skirt the so-called "fiscal cliff," a combination of expiring tax cuts and spending cuts that threatened to reverberate globally. The U.S. Senate approved a bill to avert the cliff well after midnight, though a vote in the House was pending Tuesday or Wednesday.

The recent elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., and the devastation from Superstorm Sandy also mingled amid the memories of 2012.

"This has been a very eventful year, on many levels," Denise Norris said as she and her husband, the Rev. Urie Norris, surveyed the Times Square crowd waiting for the countdown show with Ryan Seacrest as host.

Seacrest remembered Clark and his legacy, saying it was one that would be continued, and that Clark himself had told him: "Seacrest, the show must go on."

Yvonne Gomez, 53, a physician from Grand Forks, N.D., glowed as she and her husband, 63-year-old potato farmer Gregg Halverson, took in the festivities in New York.

"I couldn't begin the new year in a more beautiful way," she said. "I married him two weeks ago and here we are in the middle of Times Square celebrating the new year ? two widowers who found each other."

For Elvis Rivera, of Manhattan, who stopped by Times Square to take photos, 2012 a death and job losses in his family. How did he feel about its end?

"Relieved," Rivera said.

___

Associated Press writers Hannah Drier in Las Vegas; Colleen Long in New York; Aye Aye Win in Yangon, Myanmar; Silvia Hui in London, and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-looks-2013-violence-economic-woes-100312717.html

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Report: Environment and Food Needs Can be Met (Voice Of America)

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RPG Knight of the Earthends (for Android)

Knight of the Earthends is the latest RPG from Kemco, which churns out decent-quality Android and iOS RPG games at a fearsome pace. This one falls in the middle of Kemco's quality lineup; it's more diverting than DarkGate, but nowhere near as good as Symphony of Eternity. Still, for classic RPG fans, it's worth a look.

Kemco's secret looks to be that it's building a lot of these games on the same engine. So, like in other Kemco games, your party is made up of 16-bit sprites who wander through a relatively open overworld and a series of towns and dungeons. The game is relatively linear, using cut-scenes to push you from each town-dungeon combo to the next. Each new town has better equipment to buy, of course, and dungeons are very easily mastered because of an extremely revealing mini-map mode. There are no in-app purchases, which I absolutely love.

Moving around maps is very easy thanks to a tap-to-move system which does away with virtual D-pads. In battles, you can go purely turn-based or auto-fight; if you choose auto-fight you won't get to use spells or special attacks, though.

Spend a Few Hours With Friends
The company's specialties, story and character, buoy you along through the relatively short 10-hour main plot. (After you complete the plot, some bonus dunegons appear to hack your way through.) Knight of the Earthends is easier than some other RPGs I've played recently; I didn't find any hitches or need to grind levels as long as I played my battles smartly.

The characters in this case are Reiya, a very businesslike knight; Raud, a cranky android, and Yuinika, a kind of elflike creature with a horn. Yuinika is both literally and figuratively horny, and keeps hitting on Reiya; the banter never gets R-rated, but it's probably PG-13. The three start out defeating demons, and end up embroiled in global politics. Naturally, along the way they become friends.?

The English-language translation is clunky at times. It never quite reaches "all your base are belong to us" levels, but you're very conscious that you're playing a translated game. Still, though, the characters have strong personalities.

The actual adventure also suffers a little bit from being too predictably structured: it's never a JRPG spoiler to tell you that our heroes are going to have to defeat two essentially concentric sets of four main dungeons each before killing the big boss and saving the world. That said, Kemco has offered more complex plots such as in Aeon Avenger, and I hope they do so again.

A Classy System
Knight of the Earthends' creativity comes in its level and class system. Each of the characters is essentially a different, fixed class. Reiya buys "skill books" which give her individual skills that can then be combined into custom, special combo attacks. Raud levels up by buying him parts and upgrades, which have various attacks and powers attached to them.?

Yuinika's skill is the most brilliant. The horn-girl levels up in "styles" acquired by killing batches of various kinds of monsters; Demon, Golem, Beast, Slime, and Mimic are five of the 14 styles Yuinika can pick up, and each style has different stats, spells and attacks.?

The styles approach makes you want to "collect them all," hunting down different categories of monsters so you can find out what that mysterious level six spell is for each style. Since wandering monsters are invisible here until they attack you, that takes luck and patience. Not too much patience, though; as I said, this is a relatively short game.

Knight of the Earthends costs anywhere between $1 and $8 depending on what kind of a sale Kemco is running at the time. If you've already played through the deeper and better Symphony of Eternity and Final Fantasy III and you enjoy some frisky inter-character banter, this can be your next stop on the Google Play market.

For more Android App Reviews, see:
??? RPG Knight of the Earthends (for Android)
??? Google+ Mobile App (for iPhone)
??? Snapseed (for Android)
??? Asphalt 7: Heat (for Android)
??? WhatsApp Messenger (for Android)
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Video: Times Square ramps up security for New Year?s Eve

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Syrian government forces go on attack on first day of year

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Government war planes bombed opposition-held areas of Syria and President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels fought on the outskirts of the capital Damascus on New Year's Day on Tuesday.

A year ago, many diplomats and analysts predicted Assad would leave power in 2012. But despite international pressure and rebel gains, he has proved resilient.

His inner circle remains largely intact and retains control of the armed forces, even if it relies on air strikes and artillery power to hold back the rebels fighting to overthrow him.

The air force pounded Damascus's eastern suburbs on Tuesday and rebel-held areas of Aleppo, the second city and commercial capital, as well as several rural towns and villages, opposition activists said.

Opposition video posted on the Internet showed plumes of grey smoke rising in Irbin, in the east of Damascus.

Residents of the capital began the new year to the boom of artillery hitting southern and eastern outskirts, which form a rebel-held arc around the capital. The heart of the city is still firmly under government control.

In the city center, soldiers manning checkpoints fired celebratory gunfire at midnight although the streets were largely deserted.

"How can they celebrate? There is no 'Happy New Year'," Moaz al-Shami, an opposition activist who lives in central Mezzeh district, said over Skype.

He said rebel fighters attacked one checkpoint in Berzeh district on Tuesday morning. Opposition groups said mortar bombs hit the southwest suburb of Daraya, which the army attacked on Monday to retake it from rebels.

An estimated 45,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which started in early 2011 with peaceful protests demanding democratic reforms but turned into an armed uprising after months of attacks on protesters by security forces.

A resident of the central city of Homs said artillery shelling had smacked into its Old City on Tuesday.

Homs lies on the north-south highway and parts of the ancient city have been leveled during months of clashes. Government forces ousted rebels from Homs early last year but militants have slowly crept back in.

"The Old City is under siege. There is shelling from all sides," said the resident, who asked to remain anonymous.

A video posted on YouTube showed the bodies of three boys who activists said were arrested at a government checkpoint on their way home from school in Damascus' Jobar suburb on Sunday.

One of the boys, who appear to have barely reached adolescence, has his hands tied behind his back. Another had a large open wound on his throat.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports and the footage.

The opposition-linked Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, reported 160 people killed on the final day of 2012, including at least 37 government troops.

BOMBARDMENT

The civil war in Syria is the longest and deadliest of the conflicts that rose out of the uprisings that have swept through the Arab world over the past two years.

Many Sunni Muslims, the majority in Syria, back the rebellion, while Assad, a member of the Shi'ite-derived Alawite minority sect, is backed by some minorities who fear revenge if he falls. His family has ruled Syria since his father seized power in a coup 42 years ago.

Assad's forces now rely more on air strikes and artillery bombardment rather than infantry. Residential areas where rebels are based have been targeted, killing many civilians.

Rebels have taken swathes of the northern mountains and eastern desert but have struggled to hold cities, saying they are defenseless against Assad's Soviet-equipped air force.

Diplomatic efforts to end the war have failed, with the rebels refusing to negotiate unless Assad leaves power and the president pledging to fight until death. Western and Arab states have called for him to go. He is backed by Russia and Iran.

In the last days of 2012, international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi called on countries to push the sides to talk, saying Syria faced a choice of "hell or the political process".

One Damascus resident, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, said the usual New Year's Eve crowds were absent from the increasingly isolated capital.

"There was hardly anyone on the streets, no cars, no pedestrians. Most restaurants, cafes and bars were empty," she said.

Some young people gathered at three bars in the old city.

"There was music but nobody was dancing. They just sat there with a drink in their hands and smoking. I don't think I saw one person smile," she said.

The midnight gunfire caused alarm.

"It was very scary. No one knew what was going on. People got very nervous and started making phone calls. But then I discovered that at least on my street, the gunfire was celebratory."

(Editing by Peter Graff and Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-starts-2013-aerial-strikes-clashes-123726726.html

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