No doubt Chavez will run in 2012 vote, aide says (AP)

CARACAS, Venezuela – An aide to Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez said Monday that there is no doubt the president will run for re-election next year despite his struggle with cancer.

The remark by Finance Minister Jorge Giordani came as Chavez was in Cuba undergoing cancer treatment.

"There's no doubt he's going to be there in the 2012 elections, and afterward for many more years," Giordani said in an interview on state television.

The 56-year-old Chavez, who has been in office more than 12 years, has indicated he intends to continue with his re-election campaign next year despite his illness.

Chavez has not been seen on television since he arrived in Cuba on Saturday night. He said before leaving that he would begin chemotherapy right away.

A message posted on Chavez's Twitter account Monday night said: "Good night fellow citizens! Closing another day of this battle for life here. With unbeatable optimism! Fidel came again!"

Fidel Castro has often been at Chavez's side during the Venezuelan leader's treatment in Cuba.

Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to remove a cancerous tumor, which he has said was the size of a baseball. He hasn't said what type of cancer has been diagnosed or specified where exactly it was located, saying only that it was in his pelvic region.

Chavez has said the chemotherapy is aimed at ensuring cancer cells don't reappear. He hasn't said how long the treatment is likely to last.

When asked how long Chavez could be away, Vice President Elias Jaua told state television in an interview Monday night: "I don't know. That will depend on his treatment."

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Greek PM reshuffle plan in doubt as deputies quit (Reuters)

ATHENS (Reuters) – A string of parliamentary resignations on Thursday threatened to thwart Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's plan to reshuffle his cabinet and pass new austerity measures needed to save Greece from default.

The political turmoil raised uncertainty over the Socialist cabinet's five-year plan for tax hikes, spending cuts and state property selloffs demanded by its bailout lenders, spooking investors who fear the problems could infect global markets.

The reshuffle reflects the unpopularity of the austerity measures and follows the failure of talks over a unity government on Wednesday that drew disappointment from European Union officials who have appealed for Greece's political elite to unite behind the belt-tightening.

Analysts said it was increasingly unclear whether Papandreou would be able to form a new governing team and get the measures approved amid the political chaos, which follows nationwide strikes and violent protests in Athens on Wednesday.

"It will be very hard now to find good people to form a government now. They don't trust (Papandreou) after all the flip-flops he has made," said former finance minister Stefanos Manos. "Who will make privatizations now in all this turmoil?"

Two lawmakers in the ruling party stepped down on Thursday and will be replaced by other party members.

A ruling party deputy said that there was a lack of leadership in the country and that lawmakers were gathering signatures to force a caucus meeting of the parliamentary group later in the day.

"This does nothing to reduce fears that some form of default will eventually take place," Ben May of Capital Economics said after the resignations.

BUYING TIME

World stocks hit a three-month low on Thursday, the euro slumped to a one-month trough and top-rated government bonds rose as concerns intensified over the crisis.

Euro zone sources said the International Monetary Fund was expected to pay its share of Greece's latest aid tranche quickly to buy the EU more time to finalize a package to keep Greece afloat through 2012 and beyond.

But in a reflection of growing international frustration at the lack of political will for reform in Greece, the European Commission warned that Athens must implement its program of austerity measures to keep receiving aid.

"The government and the political forces in Greece have to take the decisions, assume their responsibilities in order to support this program," commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj told a regular news briefing.

A senior IMF official said the Fund was very concerned by the political turmoil but stood ready to help if Athens approves its austerity plan.

If the reshuffle goes ahead, the new governing team will face a confidence vote late on Tuesday, a parliamentary aide told Reuters.

Papandreou may seek to replace his finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, the main architect of hugely unpopular budget cuts demanded by the EU and the IMF as part of Greece's 110 billion-euro bailout last year.

Former ECB Vice-President Lucas Papademos is most frequently mentioned as a candidate to replace Papaconstantinou, who Greek media have said may be on his way to the Foreign Ministry.

Papademos's office said he was out of the country on Thursday and not available for comment.

AUSTERITY

Tax rises and spending cuts worth 6.5 billion euros ($9.4 billion) are planned this year, doubling already agreed measures that have driven unemployment up to a record 16.2 percent and extended a deep recession into its third year.

The European Union and International Monetary Fund have demanded the new 5-year austerity plan as a condition of releasing the next tranche of 12 billion euros in aid, which Athens needs to pay back debt that matures in August.

"I can't believe they are doing this (political wrangling), with all the money they are being offered," a European central banker told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The plan includes new luxury taxes, a crackdown on tax evasion and tax rises on soft drinks, swimming pools, restaurant bills and real estate. The euro zone member's 750,000-strong state workforce would be cut by a fifth. It also aims to raise 50 billion euros by selling off state-owned firms.

On Wednesday, tens of thousands of angry Greeks massed outside parliament to demonstrate their hostility to the draconian economic measures, while rioters hurled petrol bombs at the Finance Ministry and police fired volleys of teargas to break up the crowds.

Some Greek media a failed attempt by Papandreou to create a unity government on Wednesday had sown confusion.

"Papandreou behaved with eccentricity and created a chaos without precedent," the daily Kathimerini said in an editorial.

The political machinations and international haggling over the terms of a second bailout have battered bond markets, and the cost of insuring Greek debt against default soared to yet another record high on Thursday.

Greek opposition leader Antonis Samaras said the only way out of the crisis was early elections, but analysts said that would only happen if the government failed to get a vote of confidence.

"I think that Greek politicians are mature enough and will vote for the mid-term plan," said Gikas Hardouvelis, chief economist at EFG Eurobank. "What they don't have is the maturity to implement the hard austerity measures that it includes."

(Additional reporting by Tatiana Fragou, Renee Maltezou and George Georgiopoulos; Writing by Michael Winfrey and Hugh Lawson; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Pakistanis doubt government claims about knowledge of bin Laden

LAHORE, Pakistan — Farhan Masood feels like many Pakistanis on the subject of Osama bin Laden: He's having a hard time believing the government's claim that it had no idea the al-Qaeda mastermind was living for years in a nice town with a large military base an hour's drive from the capital.

Pakistanis along with international and local media gather Tuesday outside Osama bin Laden's compound, where he was killed during a raid by U.S. special forces.

"Nothing can happen of any sort without the involvement of officials anywhere," said Masood, who runs SoloTech, a company involved in retinal- and facial-recognition technology. "We believe that Osama bin Laden was not killed in Pakistan. If he was killed, then where is the footage? The photos of the incident?"

The Pakistan government appeared Wednesday to issue conflicting accounts of what it knew and when it knew it, angering Pakistanis who admire bin Laden and and those who did not care for him. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, breaking his silence on the subject, said his government was in the dark as were others.

"There is an intelligence failure of the whole world, not Pakistan alone," Gilani said during a visit in Paris.

Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir told the BBC on Wednesday that Pakistan had informed the United States as far back as in 2009 about its suspicions of the occupants in the home in Abbottabad. Bin Laden had been living at the compound for at least five years and was killed there early Monday in a raid by U.S. special forces.

"Of course they (the U.S.) have a much more sophisticated equipment to evaluate and to assess," he said as to why Pakistan did not act on its suspicions.

Many Pakistanis believe they know why.

"At the lower level, there are elements within the security establishment who have sympathies with the anti-U.S. extremist forces," said Farooq Tariq, a labor leader in Lahore.

"To say the least, this was a gross inefficiency on the part of our intelligence agencies," said Zaman Khan, a human rights activist.

The home is short walk from the elite Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul, near Abbottabad and not far from a neighborhood where many military families and retired officers live. The Pakistani who owned the compound that was Osama bin Laden's final hideaway had bought up adjoining plots of land over two years and once told a seller that the property he bought for "an uncle" had become very valuable, according to the Associated Press.

Property records obtained by the AP on Wednesday show that a man named Mohammed Arshad bought the land where bin Laden's compound was built between 2004 and 2005 and paid $48,000.

U.S. officials have identified the courier who led the Americans to in Laden as Sheik Abu Ahmed, a Pakistani born in Kuwait. They obtained his name from detainees held in secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe and vetted it with top al-Qaeda operatives such as 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the AP reported.

U.S. officials said the courier and his brother were killed in the commando raid on the compound early Monday.

One of bin Laden's daughters, who said she saw U.S. forces shooting her father, is in Pakistani custody, said a Pakistani intelligence official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity in line with the agency's policy. At least 10 people, including six or seven children, and a woman, are in Pakistani custody, he said.

For many Pakistanis, it's hard to believe the three-story house with 16-foot-high outer walls ? unusual for the neighborhood ? could have remained out of sight of security agencies.

"People were skeptical in this neighborhood about this place and these guys. They used to gossip, say they were smugglers or drug dealers," said farmer Mashood Khan, 45. "People would complain that even with such a big house they didn't invite the poor or distribute charity."

The Pakistani government refuted charges that the house should have tipped it off as a possible terrorist hide-out. "It needs to be appreciated that many houses (in the northwest) have high boundary walls, in line with their culture of privacy and security," the government said. "Houses with such layout and structural details are not a rarity."

Like many towns where the army has a strong presence, the streets of Abbottabad are well-groomed. Street signs tell residents to "Love Pakistan." The city is known for its good schools, including some established by Christian missionaries. Girls wear veils while carrying Hannah Montana backpacks to school.

Many houses in the outlying areas have modern amenities but are located on streets covered with trash. Shepherds herd their flocks of sheep along dusty roads just a few hundred yards from modern banks.

"That house was obviously a suspicious one," said Jahangir Khan, who was buying a newspaper in Abbottabad. "Either it was a complete failure of our intelligence agencies or they were involved in this affair."

Still others say the failure was to permit bin Laden's death.

Thousands of people congregated at funeral prayers for bin Laden held in Karachi and Lahore. Hafiz Saeed, the leader of the outlawed Islamic organization Lashkar-e-Taiba, led the prayers and said bin Laden died a martyr to Islam.

Contributing: Aisha Chowdhry

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