World stocks higher on China recovery optimism

BANGKOK (AP) — World stock markets rose Monday on optimism that China's economic recovery is firmly taking root.
Many analysts expect China's fourth quarter and 2012 growth figures due Friday to show the world's No. 2 economy continuing to bounce back from its worst slump since the 2008 financial crisis.
Sentiment improved last week after Japan announced a $224 billion stimulus package to boost its recession- and deflation-mired economy. A strong economic recovery has eluded Japan for more than 20 years since the bursting of its financial bubble in the early 1990s.
Britain's FTSE 100 rose marginally to 6,123.87. Germany's DAX gained 0.2 percent to 7,727.68. France's CAC-40 added 0.2 percent to 3,713.79.
Wall Street was set for slight gains, with Dow Jones industrial futures rising slightly to 13,437 while S&P 500 futures gained 0.1 percent to 1,468.20.
Stock markets in Asia posted gains as investors grew more confident about China's economic recovery. China reported improving exports and imports last week, a sign of higher demand both inside and outside the country. More signs of improvement are expected when China releases a slew of data on Friday, including factory output, investment and retail sales.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.6 percent to 23,413.26. South Korea's Kospi added 0.3 percent to 2,002.77 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.2 percent to 4,719.70. Japan's financial markets were closed for a public holiday.
Mainland Chinese stock markets were boosted when Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China's securities regulator, said at a conference in Hong Kong that there was room to raise by "at least" tenfold the quota of foreign institutions allowed to invest in China's domestic stock markets, which are largely off-limits to outsiders because of capital controls.
Mainland China's Shanghai Composite Index soared 3.1 percent to 2,311.74 while the Shenzhen Composite Index for China's second, smaller stock market jumped 3.6 percent to 918.23.
Dariusz Kowalczyk of Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said China's growth likely picked up in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 7.9 percent from 7.4 percent in the three months ended in September. He expects first quarter growth in 2013 to hit 8.5 percent. He said such figures should put to rest worries that China's economy might be in for a hard landing.
"Risks have diminished both externally and domestically, and if they rebound, China has sufficient resources to manage them, so we are upbeat that a relapse will not occur," he said in an email.
Still, a bobble in trade could cause a reversal, while inflation pressure is rising because of poor winter harvests, which would make it harder for Beijing to embark on new stimulus measures without pushing prices up more.
Analysts at Societe Generale have not ruled out a hard landing, which they define as real GDP growth falling below 6 percent, partly because of China's vulnerability to trade shocks.
Among individual stocks, South Korea's SK Telecom advanced 4.2 percent while Hyundai Heavy Industries fell 1.1 percent. In Shanghai, gold retailer Lao Feng Xiang Co. Ltd. jumped 7 percent. China AVIC Avionics Equipment soared 10 percent.
Benchmark oil for February delivery was up 49 cents to $94.05 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract dropped 26 cents to finish at $93.56 a barrel in New York on Friday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3354 from $1.3338 late Friday in New York. The dollar rose to 89.37 yen from 89.20 yen.
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Stock index futures trade flat to higher

Reuters/Reuters - Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange June 11, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
LONDON (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a flat to higher open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.1 percent at 0844 GMT.
Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 futures were unchanged.
European shares were also flat, with the FTSEurofirst 300 <.fteu3> just shy of a two-year high. The pan-European index has risen almost 3 percent since the start of the year.
The U.S. economy is expected to grow by 2.5 percent in 2013, improving to 3.5 percent growth in 2014, top Fed official Charles Evans said on Monday. Evans also forecast the U.S. unemployment rate would be 7.4 percent, easing to about 7 percent in 2014. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks at 2100 GMT. [ID:nL4N0AJ1JA]
Americans are beginning to feel the pinch from austerity measures. Paychecks across the country have shrunk over the last week due to higher federal tax rates, and workers say they are cutting back on spending.
Apple Inc has almost halved its order with suppliers of LCD panels for the iPhone 5 in the current quarter due to weak demand, Japanese daily Nikkei reported on Monday.
Oracle Corp released an update to its Java software for surfing the Web on Sunday, which security experts said fails to protect PCs from attack by hackers intent on committing cyber crimes.
Transocean Ltd said billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn bought a 1.56 percent stake in the offshore rig contractor and is looking to increase his holding.
Japan Airlines Co (JAL) said on Sunday that a Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner jet undergoing checks in Tokyo following a fuel leak at Boston airport last week had leaked fuel during tests earlier in the day.
Pickup truck sales are expected to outpace the broader U.S. auto market this year helped by a recovering housing market and a slew of new models from the three big U.S. automakers, executives and analysts said on Sunday.
American International Group Inc has filed a lawsuit against a vehicle created by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to help bail out the insurer, in a bid to preserve its right to sue Bank of America Corp and other issuers of mortgage debt that went sour.
Bank of America Corp directors have reached a $62.5 million settlement to resolve investor claims over the bank's acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co, a person familiar with the matter said, after a federal judge expressed reservations about an earlier version of the accord.
JPMorgan Chase & Co's board is expected to dock the 2012 bonuses of Chief Executive James Dimon and another top executive because of the "London Whale" trading debacle, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people close to the company.
The first big earnings week of 2013 features major banks Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Co, as well as online retailer eBay on Wednesday. Thursday's reports include Citigroup, Bank of America and chip maker Intel . General Electric, the largest U.S. conglomerate, is due to post fourth-quarter earnings on Friday.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 17.21 points, or 0.13 percent, to 13,488.43. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> dipped 0.07 points to 1,472.05. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> added 3.88 points, or 0.12 percent, to 3,125.64.
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Soccer-Hitzlsperger extends Everton stay to end of season

LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger will stay at Premier League club Everton until the end of the season, manager David Moyes said on Friday.
The 30-year-old midfielder, a former Germany international, signed a short-term contract with the club in October, and has played seven times this season.
"Thomas is going to stay until the end of the season. He wants to play, like everybody else," Moyes told the club website (evertonfc.com).
"We've needed him and we will continue to need him with the games we have got in the second half of the season.
"I was thinking about letting Ross (Barkley) go out on loan and Thomas's experience allowed me to do that. I just felt that keeping him was important."
Midfielder Barkley had been loaned to Championship (second division) side Leeds United for a month, Everton said on Friday.
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Soccer-Galliani wants a younger and more Italian Milan

Jan 11 (Reuters) - AC Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani wants to create a younger side boasting more Italians, meaning Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba is unlikely to arrive.
"We want a younger, more Italian Milan," he told reporters on Friday.
"I really liked the end of the match in Turin (the 2-1 defeat at Juventus in the Italian Cup on Wednesday) where we had all of our young attackers on the pitch.
"I don't think there will be any big signings," Galliani added amid speculation former Chelsea striker Drogba would be signing for Milan or Juve from Shanghai Shenhua.
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Soccer-Belhanda injury concern for Morocco

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Morocco midfielder Younes Belhanda will find out on Saturday whether he will be able to play in the African Nations Cup after he injured his thigh in training, the Morocco Football Federation said.
"It's too early now to be sure of the extent of the injury. Hopefully by Saturday morning we'll have a realistic idea of the situation," team doctor Abdelrrazak Hifti told reporters.
The 22-year-old is considered as Morocco's talisman for the tournament, where they play in Group A with Angola, Cape Verde and hosts South Africa.
Their opening game is against Angola at Soccer City in Johannesburg on Jan. 19.
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Mint, otro Linux para quienes quieren explorar el mundo fuera de Windows

Una de las grandes virtudes de Linux (un sistema operativo libre para PC y otros dispositivos) es la cantidad innumerable de versiones disponibles. Estas distribuciones, además, son en su enorme mayoría de uso gratis, y representan una buena alternativa para los que no desean invertir en una licencia de Windows o quieren explorar -sin gastar- alternativas para la computadora hogareña.
Hemos recomendado en varias ocasiones opciones sencillas de usar e instalar que tienen herramientas iguales o muy similares a las que pueden encontrarse en Windows, destacando la ductilidad de las distribuciones disponibles y cómo hacer para probarlas sin complicarse demasiado , usando un CD regrabable o un pendrive, para no afectar el Windows instalado en la computadora.
En los últimos años fue Ubuntu el que más hizo para facilitarle el trabajo a los neófitos que venían de Windows, automatizando y simplificando procesos de instalación, creando un sitio amigable, sumando instrucciones de instalación y uso en lenguaje no técnico e incluso haciendo acuerdo para preinstalarlo en equipos de marca , pero la elección de la interfaz de usuario Unity (algo rígida) le hizo perder adeptos.
Una de las alternativas que venía creciendo en popularidad era Linux Mint (gratis), y los últimos números de DistroWatch , un sitio que lista las diferentes distribuciones y su popularidad, lo dan como el rey de 2012. Mint usa a Ubuntu como base, por lo que aprovecha algunas de sus herramientas (como la que permite instalarlo dentro de Windows para poder usarlo sin afectar la instalación original) y viene con una gran cantidad de componentes multimedia preinstalados, para facilitar la reproducción de audio y video, entre otras cosas (las distribuciones más "puras" suelen evitar esto para promover el uso de estándares libres de audio y video).
Hace poco más de un mes Linux Mint liberó su versión más reciente, Nadia 14, que incluye dos entornos de escritorio que resultarán muy agradables para quienes no se sienten cómodos con Unity, porque mantienen el esquema tradicional de Windows y Gnome 2.x: una barra de herramientas en la parte inferior de la pantalla, ventanas con los botones de control a la derecha, etcétera.

Linux Mint 14 tiene dos versiones: MATE (basado en Gnome 2.x, y cuyo nombre está inspirado en la yerba mate) y Cinnamon (canela, en inglés) de aspecto similar pero con algunos detalles visuales más atractivos: menús de notificaciones más sofisticados, escritorios virtuales persistentes, miniaturas en el administrador de ventanas y más.
cómo instalarlo
Cualquiera de ellas se puede meter en un pendrive o disco externo y correr desde allí o, si se quiere, instalarlas en la PC, junto con Windows (es compatible con Windows 8) o en una partición nueva. Alcanza con descargar el archivo ISO de instalación (hay uno para MATE y otro para Cinnamon). Ese archivo (900 MB, aproximadamente) se puede grabar en un DVD con una aplicación para quemar imágenes de disco: en Windows está el freeware CDBurnerXP , por ejemplo. Con el disco en la lectora, al encender al PC debería cargar primero Mint antes que Windows (si no, habrá que cambiar una configuración en el BIOS). Podremos usarlo como si estuviera instalado en la PC y luego, si queremos, instalarlo en el disco rígido de nuestra computadora, cuidando de hacerlo en una partición vacía o dentro de Windows.
Otra opción es instalarlo en una memoria USB (de 2 GB o más de capacidad). Para eso hay que usar la aplicación Image Writer (gratis, hay que cliquear donde dice win32diskimager-binary.zip para descargar el archivo). Luego habrá que cambiar la extensión del archivo de .ISO a .IMG para que Image Writer reconozca el archivo y pueda copiarlo en el pendrive (atención que borrará todo lo que está allí).
Si al prender la PC con el pendrive conectado no lo reconoce, habrá que cambiar el orden de carga de sistemas operativos, una opción que suele aparecer apenas se prende la PC (y que no estará disponible si la computadora es muy vieja) para ordenarle que cargue primero el contenido de la memoria USB.
Para quienes estén pensando en probar una distribución de Linux y buscan reducir el "choque cultural" con una interfaz de usuario que sea parecida -pero no idéntica- a la del Windows tradicional, y que además sea sencillo de usar, tienen en Linux Mint 14 Nadia una opción muy atractiva.
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Makers of $99 Android-Powered Game Console Ship First 1,200 'Ouyas'

Like Nintendo's Wii U game console, the Ouya (that's "OOH-yuh") has an unusual name and even more unusual hardware. The console is roughly the size of a Rubik's cube, and is powered by Android, Google's open-source operating system that's normally found on smartphones and tablets.
Ouya's makers, who are preparing the console for its commercial launch, encourage interested gamers to pop the case open and use it in electronics projects ... or even to write their own games for it. Especially if they're among the 1,200 who are about to receive their own clear plastic Ouya developer consoles.
Not exactly a finished product
The limited-edition consoles, which have been shipped out to developers already, are not designed for playing games on. They don't even come with any.
Rather, the point of these consoles is so that interested Android developers can write games for the Ouya, which will then be released to gamers when the console launches to the public. Fans who pledged at least $1,337 to Ouya's record-breaking Kickstarter project will get one, and while they're not quite suited for playing games on -- "we know the D-pad and triggers on the controller still need work," Ouya's makers say -- the clear plastic developer consoles serve as a preview of what the finished product will look like, and a reminder of Ouya's "openness."
You keep using that word ...
In the food and drug industries, terms like "organic" and "all-natural" are regulated so that only products which meet the criteria can have them on their labels. In the tech world, however, anyone can claim that their product is "open," for whatever definition of "open" they like.
The term was popularized by the world's rapid adoption of open-source software, like Android itself, where you're legally entitled to a copy of the programming code and can normally use it in your own projects (like Ouya's makers did). But when tech companies say that something is "open," they don't necessarily mean that the code or the hardware schematics use an open-source license.
How Ouya is "open"
Ouya's makers have released their ODK, or developer kit, under the same open-source license as Android itself. This allows aspiring game developers to practice their skills even without a developer console, and to improve the kit however they want. The hardware itself is currently a "closed" design, however, despite the clear plastic case. The makers have expressed enthusiasm for the idea of hardware hackers using it in projects, and have said, "We'll even publish the hardware design if people want it," but so far they haven't done so.
What about the games?
The most relevant aspect of "openness" to normal gamers is that Ouya's makers say "any developer can publish a game." This model is unusual for the console world, where only select studios are allowed to publish their wares on (for instance) the PlayStation Network, but is more familiar to fans of the anything-goes Google Play store for Android. Several big-name Android developers -- including console game titan Square-Enix -- have already signed up to have their wares on the Ouya.
Preordered Ouya game consoles (the normal ones, not the developer edition) will ship in April. They will cost $99 once sales are opened to the general public.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
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Can Samsung survive without Android?

Samsung (005930) is the world’s top Android smartphone vendor by a staggering margin. Aside from LG (066570), which managed a small $20 million profit from its mobile division last quarter, no other global Android vendor can figure out how to make money selling Android phones. Meanwhile, Samsung posted a $6 billion profit on $47.6 billion in sales in the third quarter, thanks largely to record smartphone shipments and a massive marketing budget. Even as industry watchers turn sour on Apple, Samsung is seen steamrolling into 2013 and its stock is up nearly 50% on the year while Apple (AAPL) shares continue to fall from a record high hit in September. As unstoppable as Samsung appears right now, one key question remains: Is Samsung driving Android’s success or is Android driving Samsung’s success? Starting in 2013, we may finally begin to find out.
[More from BGR: Unreleased ‘BlackBerry X10′ QWERTY phone appears again in new photos]
Earlier this year, BGR wrote about Samsung’s effort to look beyond Android. Even with its own UI and application suite — and even with its own content services — Samsung will always rely on Google (GOOG) if it continues to base its devices on Google’s latest Android builds.
[More from BGR: RIM teases BlackBerry 10 launch with image of first BB10 smartphone]
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it means Samsung will never truly control the end-to-end experience on its products. It also means Samsung will never truly own its smartphones and tablets. Instead, Samsung’s devices will deliver an experience that is an amalgamation of Google’s vision and its own.
But there are alternative options. One example is the path Amazon (AMZN) has taken. Amazon let Google do the grunt work and then took its open-source Android OS and built its own software and service layer on top. Kindle Fire users don’t sit around waiting for Android updates — many of them don’t even know they’re using an Android-powered tablet.
Samsung could do the same thing, but there is a great deal of prep work that would need to be done first. Amazon’s efforts were so successful (depending on your measure of success) because the company already had a massive ecosystem in place before it even launched its first device. Streaming movies and TV shows, eBooks, retail shopping and a stocked application store were all available on the Kindle Fire from day one.
Samsung doesn’t have this luxury. Yet.
Samsung could also take ownership of a new OS, and Tizen may or may not end up being that OS. Samsung is co-developing the new Linux-based mobile platform with Intel (INTC) and others, and a new rumor from Japan’s The Daily Yomiuri suggests Samsung plans to launch its first Tizen phone in 2013. “Samsung will probably begin selling the [Tizen] smartphones next year and they are likely to be released in Japan and other countries at around the same time,” the site’s sources claim.
This will be a slow process. If Samsung follows the same path it took with Bada, Samsung’s earlier Linux-based OS that was folded into the Tizen project, things will start out slow as Samsung launches regional devices that are restricted to a few Eastern markets. Testing the waters before dumping serious marketing dollars into the project isn’t a bad idea, especially considering the battle at the bottom of the smartphone OS food chain that will already be taking place in 2013.
But one thing is clear: Samsung is looking to broaden its strategy and move beyond a point where it relies entirely on another company for its smartphone software.
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Indonesia to add photo warnings to cigarette packs

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia has issued regulations that will require cigarette packets to bear graphic photographic warnings, a long-delayed measure in a country with one of the highest rates of smoking in the world.
The regulations were watered down following opposition by tobacco farmers and cigarette companies, and fall far short of those in many Western countries and other Asian markets. Billboard and television advertising remains widespread, as is sponsorship of sports and pop music events.
The law regulating tobacco was issued in 2009, but the supporting regulations fleshing it out were not signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono until late December. They were posted in full on a government website late Wednesday. Tobacco companies will have 18 months to implement them.
The law bans companies from use terms such as "mild" and "light" in connection with their tobacco products, saying they are misleading. But a clause says those brands that are already registered trademarks will be unaffected, meaning that top companies with huge-selling lines will likely be able to keep selling them.
"There was lots of intervention from the companies," Tulus Bagus, from the Indonesian Consumer Foundation, said Thursday. "They are very strong."
Indonesian men rank as the world's top smokers, with two out of three of them lighting up. About 3 percent of women smoke in the country. Indonesia, with 240 million people, is the world's fourth most populous country and the fifth-largest cigarette-producing market, with an industry that employs millions.
In 2005, Philip Morris bought a large stake in Sampoerna, a local cigarette company, to expand its business in the country.
Under the new law, photos depicting the health effects of smoking must take up 40 percent of the area on the back and front of packets, less than many countries. According to the U.S. Food and Drug administration, more than 30 countries require such warnings and scientific evidence demonstrates that they encourage people to quit.
Sampoerna, whose Sampoerna Mild brand is a market leader in the country, said it was pleased to see a clause specifying that people under the age of 18 were prohibited from buying and smoking cigarettes. It declined further comment, saying it was studying the regulations.
Tobacco manufactures have waged an organized campaign against the laws, saying they would result in massive job losses.
"This regulation has taken into account the interests of the society without harming tobacco farmers," said Emil Agustiono, an official from the welfare ministry. "The important thing is that it will not weaken the economy."
A survey released last year by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 67 percent of all Indonesian males over 15 years old smoked. The sprawling archipelago ranked second overall with 35 percent of all males smoking, behind only Russia at 39 percent. According to WHO, smoking-related illnesses kill at least 200,000 people a year in Indonesia, where about a quarter of boys aged 13 to 15 get hooked on cigarettes, which sell for about $1 a pack.
Kartono Muhammad, an adviser to the National Commission on Tobacco Control, said the introduction of photographic warnings was a major victory, but regretted that selling cigarettes individually was not outlawed. Buying single sticks from street vendors or stalls is a common practice here.
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Venezuela's sick Chavez misses own inauguration bash

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez remained on his sickbed in Cuba on Thursday while supporters planned to rally in his honor on the day he should have been sworn in for a new six-year term in the South American OPEC nation.
The postponement of the inauguration, a first in Venezuelan history, has laid bare the gravity of Chavez's condition after complications from a fourth cancer operation in his pelvic area.
It has also left his chosen heir, Vice President Nicolas Maduro - a former bus driver who shares his boss's radical socialist views - in charge of day-to-day government until there is clarity over whether Chavez will recover or not.
"People traveling on foot, the humble, the patriots ... tomorrow we're going to demonstrate, one proud people with one slogan: we are all Chavez!" Maduro said in a televised cabinet meeting late on Wednesday.
The president, whose legendary energy and garrulous dominance of the airwaves had often made him seem omnipresent in Venezuela since 1999, has not been seen in public nor heard from since his surgery on December 11.
Venezuela's 29 million people are anxiously watching what could be the last chapter in the extraordinary life of Chavez, who grew up in a rural shack and went on to become one of the world's best-known heads of state.
The saga also has huge implications for the likes of Cuba and other leftist allies who have benefited for years from Chavez's subsidized oil and other largesse.
A clutch of foreign friends, including the presidents of Uruguay, Bolivia and Nicaragua, were due at Thursday's events in Caracas despite Chavez's absence.
Government officials have called supporters to the streets around the presidential palace. It has been the scene of some of the biggest dramas of Chavez's rule, from protests in 2002 and a coup that toppled him briefly, to speeches after election wins and emotional returns from previous cancer treatments in Havana.
"Take your songs, take your banners, so everyone knows we are all behind Chavez in this revolution," Diosdado Cabello, the head of Congress and a close Chavez ally, urged the president's supporters.
'WHO WINS FROM CONFLICT?'
Venezuela's opposition leaders are furious at what they see as a Cuban-inspired manipulation of the constitution by Maduro, Cabello and other Chavez allies aimed at preventing the naming of a caretaker president due to Chavez's absence on Thursday.
Henrique Capriles, who lost October's presidential election to Chavez, said the opposition had no plans to risk violence by encouraging supporters to hold a counter-demonstration.
"Not calling people onto the streets is not a sign of weakness, but of responsibility," he told reporters. "Who wins from a conflict scenario? They win, the pseudo-leaders who are not the owners of the country, nor of its sovereignty."
The U.S. Embassy in Caracas advised American citizens in Venezuela to exercise caution during the next few days.
A top Venezuelan military officer told state TV the borders were being reinforced and security forces were patrolling intensively to bring people "a sense of peace and tranquility."
With government updates short on details, little is known about Chavez's actual medical condition and rumors are flying.
On Wednesday, the state telecommunications regulator told opposition TV station Globovision it was beginning punitive administrative proceedings against it for "generating anxiety" with its coverage of the president's health.
The government's version is that Chavez suffered complications including a severe lung infection after the latest surgery. But speculation is rife on Twitter that he may be on life support or at risk of major organ failure.
He has undergone four operations, as well as weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, since being diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer in his pelvic area in June 2011.
He looked to have staged a remarkable recovery from the illness last year, winning a new six-year term in a hard-fought election in October. But within weeks of his victory he had to return to Havana for more treatment.
'REVOLUTION MUST CONTINUE'
In contrast with previous trips to Cuba, the government has not released any photos or video of him recuperating, and Chavez has not made any phone calls home to state media, fueling the impression that his condition is dire.
Though supporters maintain vigils and express hope he will recover, there appears to be a growing acceptance he may not, and a slow adjustment to the idea of a post-Chavez Venezuela.
"We are all necessary but nobody should be irreplaceable and the revolutionary process in our America must continue," said one friend and close ally, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa.
Though often viewed in the West as a clownish autocrat, Chavez has a kinder image in developing nations where many admire his defiance of the United States and efforts to improve the lives of Venezuela's poor.
At home, Chavez has a cult-like appeal for many in the slums due to his "anti-imperialist" rhetoric, his pumping of crude oil revenue into welfare projects, and his own humble background.
But Venezuela is deeply split, with opponents saying he has squandered an unprecedented bonanza of oil money with misguided policies. They also accuse him of allowing corruption to flourish and oppressing political opponents and media critics.
Should Chavez die or step down, a new election would be called and it would likely pit Maduro against opposition leader Capriles, the 40-year-old governor of Miranda state.
Analysts say Maduro would be hard to beat given Chavez's personal blessing and the emotional outpouring from supporters if the president were forced to leave office, though past polls have shown Capriles to be more popular than the vice president.
Foreign investors generally hope for a more business-friendly government in Venezuela so prices of its widely traded bonds have soared over the last few weeks on Chavez's health woes, but they dipped this week as investors' expectations of a quick change apparently dimmed.
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