Chavez to return to Cuba for cancer surgery again

A woman holds a picture of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez as supporters gather at Simon Bolivar square in Caracas,Venezuela, Sunday Dec. 9, 2012. Chavez is to return to Cuba Sunday for another surgery in his battle against cancer, which has led him to speak publicly of a successor for the first time. Chavez said Saturday that if there are "circumstances that prevent me from exercising the presidency further" Vice-President Nicolas Maduro should replace him for the remainder of his term.(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A woman holds a picture of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez as supporters gather at Simon Bolivar square in Caracas,Venezuela, Sunday Dec. 9, 2012. Chavez is to return to Cuba Sunday for another surgery in his battle against cancer, which has led him to speak publicly of a successor for the first time. Chavez said Saturday that if there are "circumstances that prevent me from exercising the presidency further" Vice-President Nicolas Maduro should replace him for the remainder of his term.(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Women react as they gather at Simon Bolivar square in support of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in Caracas,Venezuela, Sunday Dec. 9, 2012. Chavez is to return to Cuba Sunday for another surgery in his battle against cancer, which has led him to speak publicly of a successor for the first time. Chavez said Saturday that if there are "circumstances that prevent me from exercising the presidency further" Vice-President Nicolas Maduro should replace him for the remainder of his term.(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

ALTERNATIVE CROP OF XFLL103,- In this photo released by Miraflores Press Office, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez kisses a crucifix during a televised speech form his office at Miraflores Presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012. Chavez announced Saturday night that his cancer has returned and that he will undergo another surgery in Cuba. Chavez, who won re-election on Oct. 7, also said for the first time that if his health were to worsen, his successor would be Vice President Nicolas Maduro.(AP Photo/Miraflores Press Office, Marcelo Garcia)

Women react as they gather at Simon Bolivar square in support of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday Dec. 9, 2012. Chavez is to return to Cuba Sunday for another surgery in his battle against cancer, which has led him to speak publicly of a successor for the first time. Chavez said Saturday that if there are "circumstances that prevent me from exercising the presidency further" Vice-President Nicolas Maduro should replace him for the remainder of his term.(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A woman reacts a supporters of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez gather at the Simon Bolivar square in Caracas,Venezuela, Sunday Dec. 9, 2012. Chavez is to return to Cuba Sunday for another surgery in his battle against cancer, which has led him to speak publicly of a successor for the first time. Chavez said Saturday that if there are "circumstances that prevent me from exercising the presidency further" Vice-President Nicolas Maduro should replace him for the remainder of his term.(AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was heading back to Cuba on Sunday for more cancer surgery after announcing that the illness returned despite two previous operations, chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Chavez acknowledged the seriousness of his health situation in a televised address Saturday night, saying for the first time that if he suffers complications Vice President Nicolas Maduro should be elected as Venezuela's leader to continue his socialist movement.

The 58-year-old president is still scheduled to be sworn in for a new six-year term Jan. 10. He has been in office for nearly 14 years, since 1999.

"There are risks. Who can deny it?" Chavez said, seated at the presidential palace beside Maduro and other aides. "In any circumstance, we should guarantee the advance of the Bolivarian Revolution."

Chavez, who won re-election on Oct. 7, said he would undergo surgery in Havana in the coming days. Lawmakers on Sunday unanimously agreed to grant him permission to leave the country for the operation. The time of his departure was uncertain.

During a televised session, opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly agreed to Chavez's request to travel to Cuba and also said that Maduro should take on his duties during his temporary absence, as the constitution specifies. Opposition lawmaker Julio Borges criticized the lack of information that has been revealed about the type and location of the cancer, saying: "Venezuela has a right to know the truth."

Throughout his treatment, Chavez has kept secret various details about his illness, including the precise location of the tumors and the type of cancer. He has said he travels to Cuba for treatment because his cancer was diagnosed by doctors there.

Some of the pro-Chavez lawmakers cried and their voices cracked with emotion as they praised him and wished him a full recovery. "Onward, commander!" they chanted in unison.

"You are invincible," said Maria Leon, a pro-Chavez congresswoman, expressing confidence he would be back for his inauguration to start a new term.

Under the Venezuelan constitution, as vice president Maduro would automatically fill in as president on a temporary basis should Chavez be unable to finish the current term concluding in early January.

But the constitution also says that if a president-elect dies before taking office, a new election should be held within 30 days. In the meantime, the president of the National Assembly is to be in charge of the government.

Several outside medical experts said that based on Chavez's account of his condition and his treatment so far, they doubt the cancer can be cured.

Chavez said he hasn't given up.

"With the grace of God, we'll come out victorious," said Chavez, who held up a crucifix and kissed it.

More than 1,000 of the president's supporters gathered Sunday in Plaza Bolivar in downtown Caracas to show solidarity, many wearing his movement's red T-shirts and chanting: "Ooh-Ah! Chavez isn't going away!"

The president, who had just returned from Cuba early Friday, said on television late Saturday that tests had found a return of "some malignant cells" in the same area where tumors were previously removed.

Chavez's quick trip home appeared aimed at sending a clear directive to his inner circle that Maduro is his chosen successor. He called for his allies to pull together, saying: "Unity, unity, unity."

He also said it's important for the military to remain united, saying: "the enemies of the country don't rest."

Chavez said his doctors had recommended he have the surgery right away, but that he had told them he wanted to return to Venezuela first.

"What I came for was this," he said, seated below a portrait of independence hero Simon Bolivar, the inspiration of his Bolivarian Revolution movement.

Chavez had named Maduro, his longtime foreign minister, as his choice for vice president three days after winning re-election. The 49-year-old Maduro, a burly former bus driver, has shown unflagging loyalty and become a leading spokesman for Venezuela's socialist leader in recent years.

Chavez said that if new elections are eventually held, his movement's candidate should be Maduro.

"In that scenario, which under the constitution would require presidential elections to be held again, you all elect Nicolas Maduro as president," Chavez said. "I ask that of you from my heart."

Chavez called him "one of the young leaders with the greatest ability to continue, if I'm unable to ... continue with his firm hand, with his gaze, with his heart of a man of the people."

Chavez was flanked by both Maduro and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, and he held a small blue copy of the constitution in his hands.

State television showed Chavez's supporters congregating in squares in various cities on Sunday, and some joined hands to pray for his health. At the gathering in downtown Caracas, some expressed optimism that Chavez would pull through it. Others said they weren't sure.

"I love Chavez, and I'm worried," said Leonardo Chirinos, a construction worker. "We don't know what's going to happen, but I trust that the revolution is going to continue on, no matter what happens."

Chavez called his relapse a "new battle." It will be his third operation to remove cancerous tissue in about a year and a half.

The president first underwent surgery for an unspecified type of pelvic cancer in Cuba in June 2011, after an operation for a pelvic abscess earlier in the month found the cancer. He had another cancer surgery last February after a tumor appeared in the same area. He has also undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Chavez had recently reduced his public appearances, and he made his most recent trip to Cuba on the night of Nov. 27, saying he would receive hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Such treatment is regularly used to help heal tissues damaged by radiation treatment.

Chavez said that while he was in Cuba tests detected the recurrence of cancer.

Dr. Julian Molina, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said that based upon the limited information Chavez has made public about his cancer it appears to be terminal.

"For a patient in similar circumstances where you have given surgery as a first line of treatment, then chemotherapy, then radiation therapy and you are still dealing with a tumor this late ? that indicates that it is not a curable cancer," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Molina and other medical experts said Chavez's next surgery likely won't be high-risk.

"I think if they are planning to do any surgery it is to improve his quality of life, meaning to remove a tumor that is located in a place that is either producing some pain or some difficulty for the patient," Molina said.

He agreed with other doctors queried by the AP that Chavez may have a sarcoma, which he said tend to spread to the lungs. Based on Chavez's treatment regimen, he said, it's highly unlikely he's suffering from colon or prostate cancer, though it could be bladder cancer.

Molina said it is extremely difficult to say how long Chavez has to live. "You need to know more specifics about the case," he said.

Chavez said he wouldn't have run for re-election this year if tests at the time had shown signs of cancer. He also made his most specific comments yet about his movement carrying on without him if necessary.

"Fortunately, this revolution doesn't depend on one man," Chavez said. "Today we have a collective leadership."

Throughout his presidency, though, Chavez has been a one-man political phenomenon, and until the appointment of Maduro he hadn't spoke of any clear successor.

His announcement dramatically increased uncertainty in Venezuela about the future, and "Chavez is in the short term irreplaceable in terms of leadership and of national impact," said Luis Vicente Leon, a pollster who heads the Venezuelan firm Datanalisis.

Still, he said, Chavez's announcement could help his party's candidates rally support in upcoming state gubernatorial elections on Dec. 16. Leon also said that if Chavez's candidates have a strong showing, it could give his party an added boost to promote constitutional changes to allow Maduro to succeed Chavez without the need for a new election. Such a possibility has not been publicly raised by Chavez's political allies.

___

Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez and Christopher Toothaker in Caracas and Frank Bajak in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.

___

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

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-09-LT-Venezuela-Chavez/id-691ff47d53b245efad4cabe9b84ba441

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Microsoft Launches 14 Innovation Centres in India; Aims to Open 100 in Two years

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Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/412906/20121208/microsoft-launches-14-innovation-centers-aims-100.htm

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Benson Henderson holds onto UFC lightweight belt with controlling win over Nate Diaz

The UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson held onto his belt with a dominating performance over Nate Diaz at the Key Arena in Seattle on Saturday night. Henderson took the five-round bout 50-43, 50-45, 50-45. Henderson landed 133 significant strikes throughout the bout.

Henderson set the tone early when he got a takedown and stood over Diaz before landing shots. Throughout the round, Henderson peppered Diaz with leg kicks. It caused damage early and throughout the bout.

Diaz showed signs of life in the third round with leg lock and heel hook submission attempts. Both ?times Henderson was able to get out. Late in the round, he dropped Diaz, who continued to try for leg submissions.

At the end of the fourth round, Henderson jumped around and showed how fresh he was while Diaz had to get his eyes checked by the fight doctor. Henderson had a big takedown in the fifth, and continued to control Diaz throughout the round.

When the fight was over, Henderson reportedly walked over towards the media on press row and shouted to them:

"I don't talk, it's in here. Do you guys get it?"

This was Henderson's second title defense. He is undefeated since joining the UFC and has a record of 17-2. His last two bouts were razor-close decisions, but with this fight, Henderson has a signature performance to show he is deserving of the UFC's shiny, gold belt.

Going into this fight, Diaz had three wins at lightweight. Two were by submission, but his submission skills didn't work on Henderson. Diaz falls to an overall record of 16-8.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/benson-henderson-holds-onto-ufc-lightweight-belt-controlling-034450168--mma.html

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AP NewsBreak: FBI says Alaska man killed for fun

This undated photo provided by the FBI shows a Home Depot bucket containing gun parts, ammunition and other items discovered at a Parishville, N.Y. reservoir after a man jailed in Alaska admitted to a series of killings, including an Anchorage barista and a couple from Vermont. (AP Photo/FBI)

This undated photo provided by the FBI shows a Home Depot bucket containing gun parts, ammunition and other items discovered at a Parishville, N.Y. reservoir after a man jailed in Alaska admitted to a series of killings, including an Anchorage barista and a couple from Vermont. (AP Photo/FBI)

This undated photo provided by the FBI shows Israel Keyes. Keyes committed suicide in an Alaska jailhouse Sunday, leaving behind an incomplete picture of a loner who traveled the country for more than a decade, picking victims at random and methodically killing them. (AP Photo/FBI)

This undated photo provided by the FBI shows bottles of Drano found inside a plastic bag in Eagle River, Alaska, just north of Anchorage. The FBI says confessed Alaska serial killer Israel Keyes, who targeted people across the country, told authorities he planned to strike again in the state if he had gotten away with the murder of an 18-year-old Anchorage barista. (AP Photo/FBI)

FILE - In this undated file photo provided by the Anchorage Police Department shows Anchorage, Alaska, barrista, Samantha Koenig, 18, is pictured. Investigators say Israel Keyes, found dead Sunday, Dec. 2, of an apparent suicide in an Anchorage, Alaska jail, was not only suspected of killing Koenig but may be linked to seven other possible slayings around the country, including the Curriers, of Essex, Vt.. The bodies of the Curriers have never been found. They were last seen leaving their jobs on June 8, 2011. Anchorage police chief Mark Mew said Keyes confessed to killing Koenig, as well as killing Bill and Lorraine Currier. Keyes, 34, also indicated he killed four others in Washington state and one person in New York state, but didn't give the victims' names, authorities said. (AP Photo/Anchorage Police Department)

FILE - In this undated file photo provided by the Essex, Vt., police, Bill and Lorraine Currier are seen. Investigators say Israel Keyes, found dead of an apparent suicide in an Alaska jail, was not only suspected of killing Anchorage barista Samantha Koenig but may be linked to seven other possible slayings around the country, including the Curriers, of Essex, Vt.. The bodies of the Curriers have never been found. They were last seen leaving their jobs on June 8, 2011. Anchorage police chief Mark Mew said Keyes confessed to killing Koenig, as well as killing Bill and Lorraine Currier of Essex, Vt. Keyes, 34, also indicated he killed four others in Washington state and one person in New York state, but didn't give the victims' names, authorities said. (AP Photo/Essex police, File)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) ? Investigators who spent hours interviewing an Alaska serial killer say he may have murdered close to a dozen people, and that he killed for pleasure and was only conflicted about how his notoriety would affect his loved ones.

Israel Keyes confessed to killing eight people across the country before he committed suicide last weekend in an Anchorage jail, but FBI and Anchorage police investigators said Friday they think he may have had up to three additional victims.

"Based on some of the things he told us, and some of the conversations we had with him, we believe the number is less than 12," FBI Special Agent Jolene Goeden said. "We don't know for sure. He's the only one who could have ultimately answered that."

Keyes slit his wrist and strangled himself with bedding Sunday at the Anchorage Correctional Facility. He was facing federal murder charges in the kidnapping and death of an 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, who was abducted from an Anchorage coffee stand Feb. 1.

Goeden and Anchorage Police officer Jeff Bell conducted up to 40 hours of interviews with Keyes after his March arrest in Texas. During that time, Keyes confessed to killing Koenig, along with Bill and Lorraine Currier in Vermont, and five other people ? although details for those victims were scarce.

The interviews also revealed Keyes' motivation, which was simple, Goeden and Bell told The Associated Press.

"He enjoyed it. He liked what he was doing," Goeden said. "He talked about getting a rush out of it, the adrenalin, the excitement out of it."

Keyes also liked seeing coverage of his crimes in the media, and he appeared to get a thrill out of talking about some of them with investigators, Goeden and Bell said.

His crimes started small with burglaries and thefts ? until the urge escalated to murder.

Bell said Keyes told investigators the first violent crime he committed was a sexual assault in Oregon, in which he let the victim go.

"He planned on killing her but didn't," Bell said.

Keyes said the rape occurred sometime between 1996 and 1998 along the Deshutes River near Maupin, Ore., after he got the girl away from her friends. The girl was between the ages of 14 and 18, and would be in her late 20s or 30s now. No police reports were filed, and the FBI is seeking more information on the crime.

Of the five other murders Keyes confessed to, four were in Washington state and one occurred on the East Coast, with the body disposed of in New York.

In the case of the Curriers, authorities say Keyes flew from Alaska to Chicago on June 2, 2011, rented a car and drove almost 1,000 miles to Essex, Vt.

There, he carried out a "blitz" style attack on the Curriers' home, bound the couple and took them to an abandoned house. Bill Currier was shot, and his wife was sexually assaulted and strangled.

Keyes immediately returned to Alaska, and followed the case on his computer by monitoring Vermont media. The couple's bodies were never found after the house was demolished and taken to a landfill.

Leaving the area shortly after a murder was a familiar tactic for Keyes. After he abducted Koenig, he took her to a shed at his Anchorage home, sexually assaulted her and strangled her.

Keyes then left the next day for a two-week cruise, storing Koenig's body in the shed. Upon his return, he dismembered the body and disposed of it in a lake north of Anchorage. He was later arrested in Texas after using Koenig's debit card.

Koenig was his only known victim in Alaska. Goeden and Bell said he never explained why his broke his own rule of never killing anyone in the town where he lived because it's easier to be connected to such a killing.

The only mistake Keyes said he made was letting his rental car be photographed by an ATM when withdrawing money in Texas.

Unlike his earlier killings, the deaths of the Curriers and Koenig received a lot of news coverage.

"He was feeding off the media attention in the end," Bell said.

That wasn't the only change. His time between murders was growing shorter.

"He talked about that time period in between crimes, that over the last few years, that became quicker," Goeden said.

During their interviews, Keyes was willing to talk about the Koenig and Currier killings since he knew authorities had evidence against him.

"It was chilling to listen to him. He was clearly reliving it to a degree, and I think he enjoyed talking about it," Bell said of the Koenig and Currier deaths. But in the other cases, Keyes wasn't as forthcoming because he knew investigators had little on them.

Keyes, a construction contractor, told investigators that they knew him better than anyone, and that this was the first time he'd ever spoken about what he called his double life.

"A couple of times, he would kind of chuckle, tell us how weird it was to be talking about this," Bell said.

Even though he was talking to investigators, Keyes didn't want his name made public in any of the other investigations, especially the Curriers, because of the fallout of publicity. He threatened to withhold information if his name got out

"If there was nobody else that he was concerned about, I think he wanted his story out there. He wanted people to know what he did," Goeden said. "What he was worried about is the impact that was going to have on the people that cared about him and were close to him."

Keyes will be buried Sunday in Washington state. His mother and four of his nine siblings were traveling to the funeral, his mother's pastor, Jacob Gardner, told the Anchorage Daily News.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-07-Alaska%20Serial%20Killer/id-8fe428dc425b4f3ab82717c9c8c1c717

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Apple Builds a New Home on Facebook's Back Porch

We knew that Apple was building a pair of new data centers close to Facebook?s operation in Prineville, Oregon. But we didn?t realize just how close they were until we spent a plane over Oregonian high desert.

The notoriously secretive Apple is especially secretive about its data centers. So while Google and Facebook have opened up their doors to Wired reporters over the past year, Apple has not only rolled up the welcome mat. They?ve disconnected the front doorbell.

That?s what forced us to take to the skies. In April, we published our first overhead shots of Apple?s Maiden, North Carolina, data center, and a few weeks ago, we sent our iSpy plane over Prineville, where Apple has just broken ground on a $68 million data center, just down the road from Facebook.

So here?s the world?s first look at the future home of the West Coast iCloud:

You can see Apple?s mini data center ? they call it a tactical data center ? up in the northeast corner of the property. Here?s a close-up shot:

Apple finished this building earlier this year, but just south of it, you can see what will be the site of its much larger 338,000-square-foot data center. Apple wants to eventually build two of these monster data centers on the 160-acre site, but right now, there?s no sign of the second facility.

When it goes fully online, Prineville will be fully powered by alternative energy. That might help cut it some slack from Greenpeace, which has been known to launch unexpected protests on Apple property armed with window-washers and black balloons.

Apple showed up in Prineville only after Facebook had built its own 330,000-square-foot data center just outside of town. The internet giants love locations like this, primarily because of their cheap real estate, local tax breaks, cool climates, and reliable and abundant power supplies.

Facebook?s first data center was up and running a year ago. The company is now putting the finishing touches on a second data center (at the bottom of the photo below) and has also broken ground on a new cold-storage facility, which is designed to save power by icing backup data on servers that are only rarely switched on. That smoothed-out rectangular patch just beneath the second data center is the future site of cold storage:

Apple operates three other data centers: in Newark, California; in Maiden, North Carolina; and at the company?s Cupertino headquarters. Earlier this year, it started work on a fifth facility in Reno, Nevada.

Source: http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/IETCq6pj930/

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With war shifting, US, Russia talk Syria's future

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton listens to a question during a joint news conference with Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the government building in Dublin, Ireland, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012. Clinton was in Ireland to attend the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conference. (AP Photo/Kevin Lamarque, Pool)

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton listens to a question during a joint news conference with Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the government building in Dublin, Ireland, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012. Clinton was in Ireland to attend the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conference. (AP Photo/Kevin Lamarque, Pool)

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., center, accompanied by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., left, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012, to discuss Syria. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

DUBLIN (AP) ? Diplomatic efforts to end Syria's civil war moved forward Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton joining Russia's foreign minister and the U.N. peace envoy to the Arab country for extraordinary three-way talks that suggested Washington and Moscow might finally unite behind a strategy as the Assad regime weakens.

In Washington, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said intelligence reports raise fears that an increasingly desperate Syrian President Bashar Assad is considering using his chemical weapons arsenal ? which the U.S. and Russia agree is unacceptable.

"I think there is no question that we remain very concerned, very concerned," Panetta said, "that, as the opposition advances, in particular in Damascus, that regime might very well consider the use of chemical weapons."

It was unclear whether Assad might target rebels within Syria or bordering countries, but growing concern over such a scenario was clearly adding urgency to discussions in Ireland's capital.

On the sidelines of a human rights conference, Clinton gathered with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and mediator Lakhdar Brahimi for about 40 minutes to look for a strategy the international community could rally around to end Syria's 21-month civil war.

"We have talked a little bit about how we can work out hopefully a process that will get Syria back from the brink," Brahimi said after the meeting ended.

The experienced Algerian diplomat, representing the global body and the Arab League, said he would put together a peace process based on a political transition strategy the U.S. and Russia agreed on in Geneva in June. Then, the process quickly became bogged down over how the international community might enforce its conditions.

"We haven't taken any sensational decisions," Brahimi said. "But I think we have agreed that the situation is bad and we have agreed that we must continue to work together to see how we can find creative ways of bringing this problem under control and hopefully starting to solve it."

The former Cold War foes have fought bitterly over how to address the conflict, but Clinton stressed before the meeting that they shared a common goal.

"We have been trying hard to work with Russia to try to stop the bloodshed in Syria and start a political transition for a post-Assad Syrian future," Clinton told reporters in Dublin.

"Events on the ground in Syria are accelerating and we see that in many different ways," she said. "The pressure against the regime in and around Damascus seems to be increasing. We've made it very clear what our position is with respect to chemical weapons, and I think we will discuss that and many other aspects of what is needed to end the violence."

A senior U.S. official said the meeting focused on how to help Syria's political transition in "practical terms." Both Clinton and Lavrov supported Brahimi's efforts, and they agreed to a meeting chaired by the envoy next week that would include senior U.S. and Russian officials to discuss next steps. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Washington and Moscow have more often publicly chastised each other than cooperated on an international strategy for Syria. The U.S. has criticized Russia for shielding its Arab ally. The Russians have accused the U.S. of meddling by demanding Assad's downfall and ultimately seeking an armed intervention such as the one last year against the late Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

But the gathering of the three key international figures suggested possible compromise in the offing. At a minimum, it confirmed what officials described as an easing of some of the acrimony that has raged between Moscow and Washington over the future of Syria, an ethnically diverse nation whose stability is critical given its geographic position in between powder kegs Iraq, Lebanon and Israel.

Other administration officials in recent days have spoken about Syrians preparing weapon components of sarin gas. The new activity, coupled with fears that rebel advances are making Assad more desperate, have led to the fear that he is deploying the weapons.

On Capitol Hill, some senators even suggested military action against Assad.

Sen. John McCain told reporters the U.S. should "be ready to do whatever is necessary to prevent" the use of chemical weapons, "including the option of military intervention."

Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad on Thursday accused the United States and Europe of using the issue of chemical weapons to justify a future military intervention against Syria. He warned that any such intervention would be "catastrophic."

Brahimi is hoping to resuscitate something akin to the plan crafted earlier this year by his predecessor as Syria peace envoy, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan's plan never got off the ground, and he resigned his post in frustration.

Annan's plan demanded several steps by the Assad regime to de-escalate tensions and end the violence that activists say has killed more than 40,000 people since March 2011. It then required Syria's opposition and the regime to put forward candidates for a transitional government, with each side having the right to veto nominees proposed by the other.

If anything resembling that plan progresses, it would surely mean the end of more than four decades of an Assad family member at Syria's helm. The opposition has demanded Assad's departure and has rejected any talk of him staying in power. Yet it also would grant regime representatives the opportunity to block Sunni extremists and others in the opposition that they reject.

The United States blamed the collapse on Russia for vetoing a third resolution at the U.N. Security Council that would have applied world sanctions against Assad's government for failing to live by the deal's provisions.

Russia insisted that the Americans unfairly sought Assad's departure as a precondition and worried about opening the door to military action, even as Washington offered to include language in any U.N. resolution that would have expressly forbidden outside armed intervention.

The same pitfalls threaten Brahimi's process. The Obama administration is likely to insist anew that it be internationally enforceable ? a step Moscow may still be reluctant to commit to.

But with the war turning against Assad, U.S. officials are hoping that Russia will be prepared to drop its support for him.

In Syria, government forces on Thursday shelled rebellious suburbs around Damascus and clashed with rebels in the capital itself and in Aleppo, Syria's largest city.

Robert Ford, the U.S. ambassador in Damascus until his recall earlier this year, pointed to the closure of Syria's main airport and the rebel capture of defense sites inside the Damascus beltway as key indicators of the conflict's direction. "The writing is on the wall," he said at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies forum in Washington.

Also Thursday, NATO advanced its plan to place Patriot missiles and troops along Syria's border with Turkey to protect against potential attacks. Assad's regime blasted the move as "psychological warfare," saying the new deployment would not deter it from seeking victory over rebels it views as terrorists.

___

Associated Press writers Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin and Pauline Jelinek, Alan Fram and Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-12-06-US-Syria/id-0a8087918b4c4af0bfd27a6684c1142b

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McAfee hospitalized after being denied asylum

Software company founder John McAfee lies on a gurney inside an ambulance, to be transferred from an immigration detention center to a hospital, in Guatemala City, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012 . He was examined by a doctor at the detention center, who said that McAfee's heart and blood pressure were normal, but nonetheless was being moved to a hospital after McAfee was found lying on the floor in the room where he was being detained. McAfee who fled Belize was denied political asylum in Guatemala on Thursday and police in Belize said they expected him to be flown back soon for questioning about the killing of a fellow American expatriate.(AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Software company founder John McAfee lies on a gurney inside an ambulance, to be transferred from an immigration detention center to a hospital, in Guatemala City, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012 . He was examined by a doctor at the detention center, who said that McAfee's heart and blood pressure were normal, but nonetheless was being moved to a hospital after McAfee was found lying on the floor in the room where he was being detained. McAfee who fled Belize was denied political asylum in Guatemala on Thursday and police in Belize said they expected him to be flown back soon for questioning about the killing of a fellow American expatriate.(AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

In this photo released by Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman's office, software company founder John McAfee is pictured in an immigration detention center in Guatemala City, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012. The anti-virus guru was arrested at a hotel in an upscale neighborhood with the help of Interpol agents, hours after he said he would seek asylum in the Central American country. Guatemalan authorities were awaiting orders from their Foreign Ministry about whether to send him back to Belize, where he is a person of interest in the killing of a fellow expatriate American. (AP Photo/Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman's office)

In this photo released by Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman's office, software company founder John McAfee is photographed in an immigration detention center in Guatemala City, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012. The anti-virus guru was arrested at a hotel in an upscale neighborhood with the help of Interpol agents, hours after he said he would seek asylum in the Central American country. Guatemalan authorities were awaiting orders from their Foreign Ministry about whether to send him back to Belize, where he is a person of interest in the killing of a fellow expatriate American. (AP Photo/Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman's office)

Software company founder John McAfee lies inside an ambulance, to be transferred from an immigration detention center to a hospital, in Guatemala City, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012 . He was examined by a doctor at the detention center, who said that McAfee's heart and blood pressure were normal, but nonetheless was being moved to a hospital after McAfee was found lying on the floor in the room where he was being detained. McAfee who fled Belize was denied political asylum in Guatemala on Thursday and police in Belize said they expected him to be flown back soon for questioning about the killing of a fellow American expatriate. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

In this image made using a cell phone, software company founder John McAfee updates his blog at an immigration detention center in Guatemala City, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012. The anti-virus guru was arrested at a hotel in an upscale neighborhood with the help of Interpol agents, hours after he said he would seek asylum in the Central American country. Guatemalan authorities were awaiting orders from their Foreign Ministry about whether to send him back to Belize, where he is a person of interest in the killing of a fellow expatriate American. Pictured at right is one of his lawyers, Karla Paz.(AP Photo/Sonia Perez)

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) ? Software company founder John McAfee was hospitalized briefly Thursday after being denied political asylum in Guatemala, and his lawyers said they were making a last-ditch effort to keep him from being flown back to Belize for questioning about the killing of a fellow American expatriate.

McAfee told The Associated Press that he suffered chest pains overnight but didn't believe he had a heart attack. A government doctor who examined him agreed, saying that McAfee's heart rhythm and blood pressure were normal and that he appeared to be suffering from high stress.

McAfee was moved from an immigration center to a police-run hospital Thursday afternoon after Guatemalan authorities said McAfee's request for asylum had been denied. They did not explain why.

He was released from the hospital and taken back to the detention center Thursday night.

Shortly after the decision to deny him asylum was announced, McAfee issued a plea on his blog for the public to petition Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina to let him stay.

"Please email the President of Guatemala and beg him to allow the court system to proceed, to determine my status in Guatemala, and please support the political asylum that I am asking for," the post read.

McAfee's legal team said they were preparing to appeal the denial of asylum to the country's constitutional court, a process that could give McAfee perhaps another day or two in Guatemala. The court would have to issue a decision within 48 hours.

McAfee's complaints of chest pain prompted authorities to move him from the immigration center where he had been held overnight. He had been taken to the center after his arrest for illegally entering the country after a bizarre weekslong journey as a self-styled fugitive with an active blog and constant contact with the press.

During an exclusive interview with the AP Thursday morning from inside his private room at the center, McAfee said he was refusing to travel to a hospital because he had been using Chinese herbal medicine since suffering a heart attack in 1993.

"Last night I had a little bit of pain, but I am fine this morning," he said. "I don't like Western medicine ... if the people around me are kind and compassionate, that's all that matters in life. The people of Guatemala are very kind people, so I have no complaints."

A couple of hours later, an AP reporter returned to McAfee's room and found him changed into a suit but lying on the floor as he was examined by a doctor. Shortly after, he was taken to the police hospital.

Belizean police spokesman Raphael Martinez said officials expected McAfee to be flown back to his country's capital. Police want to question him about the fatal shooting of Gregory Viant Faull, who was shot to death in early November on the Belize island where both men lived.

There is no warrant for McAfee's arrest, so it is possible his self-initiated flight from Belizean authority could end up with him free to roam the Caribbean island where he lived for years, often clashing with neighbors and authorities over allegations he kept aggressive dogs, weapons and drug paraphernalia on his property.

The Faull family has said through a representative that the murder of their loved one on Ambergris Caye has gotten lost in the media frenzy provoked by McAfee's manipulation of the media through phone calls, emails and blog posts detailing his life on the lam.

McAfee updated his blog Thursday after being given a computer by the warden at the immigration center in Guatemala City, a three-story building with mesh-covered windows and barbed-wire on the roof.

McAfee said U.S. Embassy officials had said they couldn't help him with a request to be returned to the United States instead of Belize. McAfee said he had formally requested asylum in Guatemala because he fears for his safety in Belize because he has sensitive information about official corruption and refused to donate to local politicians.

His Guatemalan lawyer, Telesforo Guerra, warned Wednesday night that the 67-yeard-old McAfee's life would be in danger if he is sent back to Belize.

"He will be in danger if he is returned to Belize, where he has denounced authorities," Guerra said. "From the moment he asked for asylum he has to have the protection of the Guatemalan government."

Police in Belize deny they are persecuting McAfee and say there is no warrant for his arrest. The country's prime minister has questioned McAfee's mental state.

McAfee went on the run last month after officials tried to question him about the killing of Faull, who was shot to death in early November.

McAfee acknowledges that his dogs were bothersome and that Faull had complained about them, but denies killing Faull. Faull's home was a couple of houses down from McAfee's compound.

McAfee, the creator of the McAfee antivirus program, has led an eccentric life since he sold his stake in the anti-virus software company that is named after him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize about three years ago to lower his taxes.

He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $4 million of his $100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis. However, a story on the Gizmodo website quoted him as calling that claim "not very accurate at all." He has dabbled in yoga, ultra-light aircraft and producing herbal medications.

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Associated Press writers Patrick E. Jones in Belize City and Michael Weissenstein in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-12-06-Guatemala-McAfee/id-44c48e431ee549d69d3c0f85366478b1

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