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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has spent much of his career praising the socialist ideas of famed atheists such as Karl Marx and Fidel Castro. Now in the thick of a prolonged battle against cancer, however, the leftist leader is drawing inspiration from a spiritual leader: Jesus Christ. Chavez has been praying for divine intervention during increasingly infrequent appearances on television, holding up a crucifix while vowing to overcome his illness. He says living with cancer has made him "more Christian," talk that has spurred speculation that cancer might cut short his bid for re-election in October....

BEST PICTURE The Artist War Horse The Descendants Moneyball The Tree of Life Midnight in Paris The Help Hugo Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close BEST DIRECTOR Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Alexander Payne, The Descendants Martin Scorsese, Hugo Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life BEST ACTOR Demian Bichir, A Better Life George Clooney, The Descendants Jean Dujardin, The Artist Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Brad Pitt, Moneyball BEST ACTRESS Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs Viola Davis, The Help Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady Michelle Williams, My Week With...

Just wondered if anyone had seen Scorsese's new 3D movie, "Hugo". I saw it this weekend and enjoyed it and wondered what others thought? (you might want to avoid reading this thread if you haven't seen it yet)

Hugo Chávez announced earlier this month he'd like to expropriate much of Los Roques' private property for state tourism — including yachts like Alvarez's, which el Presidente says would be better used for ferrying visitors. "Expropriating a boat is completely absurd," says Alvarez, 39. "I don't see how they can take away something you've worked hard for and bought." Actually, Chávez has made it look pretty easy during his 12 years in power. His socialist Bolivarian Revolution has nationalized and expropriated everything from utilities to ranches to golf courses — and with his re-election bid approaching next year, seizing a...

Reading about hurricane Irene reminds me of a night, almost 22 years ago. My eldest daughter was exactly 3 weeks old and hurricane Hugo was supposed to "brush past" the South Carolina coast. We lived inland, so we were not concerned at all. My husband had farmed all his life and said that probably we would get some nice rain. I didn't know what to expect, this was my first hurricane, besides I was too busy with my newborn baby. So we went to bed. Just before midnight, the wind was getting very strong and the rain was hitting the...

The country's National Telecommunications Commission condemned the programme for it's "degrading treatment of Venezuela" and asked Televen to immediately stop broadcasting it. In the show, called Chepe Fortuna, the girl called Venezuela has a better behaved sister called Colombia. In one episode, Venezuela is shown searching for her dog after he goes missing, calling out: "Little Hugo? Baby? Baby? Cutie?" Later Venezuela is seen crying as she talks to someone over the phone and asks: "What will become of Venezuela without Little Hugo?" A man replies: "Venezuela will be free. Lately Little Hugo was defecating everywhere." The show was not...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during a reception for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff at Planalto Palace in Brasilia January 1, 2011. Rousseff is the first woman to become Brazil's president, taking the reins of an emerging giant with a booming economy, vast new oil reserves and growing international diplomatic clout. Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (R) talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as his wife Marisa Leticia stands with them, during a reception for Lula's successor Dilma Rousseff at Planalto Palace in Brasilia January 1, 2011. U.S. Secretary...

Diplomacy: If insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, how is one to characterize Hillary Clinton's latest grip-and-grin encounter with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez in Brazil on Saturday? Less than two years ago, the Secretary of State made what might have been dismissed as a beginner's mistake at a summit in Trinidad, going out of her way to shake hands and share laughs with the thuggish tyrant of Caracas. The idea then was to turn a new leaf in troubled U.S.-Venezuelan relations on the premise the only obstacle had been President Bush. In two...

Chavez said he needs an "enabling law" for the fourth time in his presidency to pass emergency laws quickly in a range of areas, including housing, land use and banking. "There is no time to lose," Chavez said on state television, citing the country's emergency efforts to help thousands of people displaced by deadly floods and mudslides. Chavez's request comes shortly before the Jan. 5 installation of a new National Assembly in which a bigger opposition presence will prevent him from obtaining the two-thirds majority he would need to obtain such decree powers. Government opponents accuse Chavez of growing increasingly...

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said he knows what's been causing the floods that have killed 32 people in his country and left 70,000 homeless: "criminal capitalism." "The developed nations irresponsibly shatter the environmental order, in their desire to maintain a criminal development model while the immense majority of the earth's people suffer the most terrible consequences," he said on Venezuelan television Sunday.

(Reuters) - Russia gave Venezuela a $4 billion credit to buy weapons when President Hugo Chavez visited Moscow last month, adding to billions the socialist leader has already spent on re-equipping the army. Venezuela and Russia have forged deep ties in energy and defense, with Russian investment flowing into the OPEC member's oil fields at the same time as Chavez has become one of Moscow's most important weapons customers. Washington views with suspicion Chavez's purchases of tanks, fighter jets and air defense systems in the last few years but the soldier-turned-president says he is merely modernizing Venezuela's aging kit. "We...

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela ordered the expropriation of the country's largest privately owned steel producer Sunday, the latest in a series of takeovers that has raised concerns among business leaders...The president said the seizure of Siderurgica del Turbio, or Sidetur, is part of his strategy to transform Venezuela into a socialist state, frpa

Hugo Chavez has nationalized American oil rigs, shut down 34 radio stations, is busy confiscating private property and annointed himself President for life. America has its own Chavez. Doug Ross reminds us that Mark Levin observed that we are as close to a dictatorship as we have ever been. Last May, Mark Levin -- the President of Landmark Legal Foundation -- stated that President Barack Obama was the "closest thing to a dictator" this country had ever seen. The list of horribles included his naked attempts to silence critics, his encouragement of voter intimidation, his support of rampant vote...

What I learned about Hugo Chávez's mental health when I visited Venezuela with Sean Penn.Recent accounts of Hugo Chávez's politicized necrophilia may seem almost too lurid to believe, but I can testify from personal experience that they may well be an understatement. In the early hours of July 16—just at the midnight hour, to be precise—Venezuela's capo officiated at a grisly ceremony. This involved the exhumation of the mortal remains of Simón Bolívar, leader of Latin America's rebellion against Spain, who died in 1830. According to a vividly written article by Thor Halvorssen in the July 25 Washington Post, the...

CARACAS (MarketWatch) -- Venezuela, facing criticism over its plan to nationalize 11 idled rigs owned by Helmerich & Payne Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!hp/quotes/nls/hp (HP 39.07, +0.04, +0.10%) , said Friday the Tulsa-based company was the only one of 33 oil services companies that refused to renegotiate rates starting in early 2009, when oil prices were falling. "Despite meetings with representatives and directors of H&P for nearly a year, it wasn't possible to reach an agreement due to the inflexible position of the said company," according to a statement from state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA. Of the 32 companies that...

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is offering parents a cure for children who don't want to go to sleep. Have them watch his televised speeches. In a television appearance on Thursday to extol the virtues of a portable computer his socialist government plans to introduce at public schools, Chavez said youngsters had stopped him in the street to tell him they saw him on television. "It seems that there are mothers here who, instead of putting their kids to sleep with cartoons, put them to sleep with Chavez," he said. "And the child dozes off and dozes off,...

One person is murdered every two hours in Venezuela. The murder rate in the South American country has more than quadrupled since Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999. There were 54 homicides per 100,000 people last year, a rate only exceeded on the continent by El Salvador, where there were 70 homicides per 100,000 citizens. "The problem is not so much the criminals, but rather the government's inaction and lack of policies," Briceño blames an ineffective justice system and high rates of corruption. The capital city, Caracas, has the highest murder rate on the continent

Venezuela has been suffering through its worst energy crisis in the last 50 years. President Hugo Chavez’s solution? Change all the light bulbs! Well, that might not be the only action the country is taking (they’ve also put electricity rationing into effect) but an army of Venezuelan soldiers has been given direct orders from the president to distribute thousands of Firefly energy-efficient CFL bulbs. In terms of slashing electricity use, it doesn’t help that Venezuelans are the highest energy consumers per capita in Latin America. In fact, state run electricity company Corpoelec says Venezuelans use more than 1,000 kilowatt hours...

President Hugo Chavez delivered a bizarre attack on the Queen when the firebrand Venezuelan leader demanded Britain return the Falkland Islands to Argentina.The outspoken Mr Chavez used his weekly television and radio show Alo Presidente to rally Latin America behind the cause of his Argentine counterpart Cristina Kirchner by making a direct appeal to Buckingham Palace. "Look, England, how long are you going to be in Las Malvinas? Queen of England, I'm talking to you," said Mr Chavez. "The time for empires are over, haven't you noticed? Return the Malvinas to the Argentine people." Still addressing the Queen, he went...

Socialism: The lights are flickering in oil-rich Venezuela, a victim of the same shortages that appear wherever socialism is tried. With the grid verging on collapse, the final irony is to see Hugo Chavez calling Cuba to fix it. Most leaders serious about fixing a collapsing power grid call up companies like Bechtel or APR Energy because they're capable of swiftly setting up small power plants in emergencies, even in infrastructure wastelands such as Haiti. But that's not whom President Hugo Chavez called when he got word that Venezuela's electricity is in a state of collapse and may go black...