People celebrate after hearing the result of a referendum, in Caracas, Dec. 3.

CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec. 3--President Hugo Chavez suffered a stunning defeat in a referendum that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely and impose a socialist system in this major US oil supplier.
Voters rejected the sweeping measures Sunday by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, said Tibisay Lucena, chief of the National Electoral Council. She said that with 88 percent of the votes counted, the trend was irreversible, reported AP.
The defeated reforms would have created new forms of communal property, let Chavez local leaders under a redrawn political map, lengthened presidential terms from six to seven years and allowed Chavez seek re-election indefinitely. Now, Chavez will be barred from running again in 2012.
Other changes would have shortened the workday from eight hours to six, created a social security fund for millions of informal laborers and promoted communal councils where residents decide how to spend government funds.
Chavez is seen by many supporters as a champion of the poor and has redistributed more oil wealth than any other leader in memory.
All was reported calm during Sunday’s voting but 45 people were detained, most for committing ballot-related crimes like “destroying electoral materials,“ said Gen. Jesus Gonzalez, chief of a military command overseeing security.

MOSCOW, Dec. 3--Vladimir Putin’s party won a crushing victory in parliamentary elections, paving the way for him to remain in control even after he steps down as president.
Sunday’s vote followed a tense Kremlin campaign that relied on a combination of persuasion and intimidation to ensure victory for the United Russia party and for Putin, who has used a flood of oil revenue to move his country into a more assertive position on the global stage, AP said.
“The vote affirmed the main idea: that Vladimir Putin is the national leader, that the people support his course, and this course will continue,“ party leader and parliament speaker Boris Gryzlov said after exit polls were announced.
With ballots from nearly 98 percent of precincts counted, United Russia was leading with 64.1 percent, while the Communists trailed with 11.6 percent, the Central Election Commission said.
Turnout was about 62 percent, up from 56 percent in the last parliamentary elections four years ago.
The Kremlin portrayed the election as a plebiscite on Putin’s nearly eight years as president--with the promise that a major victory would allow him somehow to remain leader after his second term ends next year.
Putin is constitutionally prohibited from running for a third consecutive term, but he clearly wants to stay in power. A movement has sprung up in recent weeks to urge him to become a “national leader,“ though what duties and powers that would entail are unclear.

Michel Suleiman

BEIRUT, Lebanon,
Dec. 3--Lebanon’s parliamentary majority has backed a compromise candidate for president, raising hopes of an end to months of tense political deadlock.
The western-backed ruling bloc had initially rejected army chief Gen Michel Suleiman who has conditional support from the pro-Syrian opposition, BBC said.
His election requires an amendment to the constitution to allow senior civil servants to take over the presidency. The repeatedly postponed presidential vote is now scheduled for 7 December.
Lebanon has been without a head of state since 27 November as rival factions argued about a successor to the pro-Syrian incumbent, Emile Lahoud.
Gen Suleiman, 59, has held his post since 1998, when he was nominated by the outgoing Lahoud.
Correspondents say he has remained neutral during the year-long political crisis and has repeatedly called on the army to keep out of politics.
The former opposition candidate for the job, Michel Aoun, had earlier lent his conditional support to Gen Suleiman’s candidacy.
His conditions include the appointment of a neutral prime minister--something the governing coalition has previously rejected.
He also asked that Gen Suleiman step down at the 2009 parliamentary elections rather than serving a full term until 2013.

HAVANA, Dec. 3--Fidel Castro was nominated for a seat in Cuba’s parliament Sunday, leaving open the option for the ailing 81-year-old revolutionary to stay on as the communist-run island’s president.
A National Assembly seat is a prerequisite for seeking the presidency, and if Castro had failed to be nominated it could have heralded a decision to remove himself from the office after almost a half century as Cuba’s undisputed leader, reported AP.
The Cuban leader was nominated by city council officials in his eastern home province of Santiago, a step in a multitiered process that will eventually determine his political status.
There was no immediate word on whether Castro will accept the nomination. If he wins a parliament seat during national elections Jan. 20, he would remain in the running to retain the presidency of Cuba’s supreme governing body, the Council of State.
Castro still officially heads the council, but has not been seen in public since emergency intestinal surgery forced him to cede power to a provisional government run by his younger brother Raul in July 2006.
Cuban officials say he is recovering and on top of political events.
Members of municipal assemblies across the island gathered to nominate candidates for the 614-member parliament, which is known here as the National Assembly and is chosen every five years.

SYDNEY, Australia, Dec. 3--Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd became Australia’s 26th prime minister Monday and immediately began dismantling the former government’s policies by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
Rudd had pledged to commit Australia to the landmark United Nations treaty on greenhouse gas emissions as his first priority and kept his word after his official swearing in at Government House in Canberra, AFP said.
“Today I have signed the instrument of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol,“ the former diplomat said in a statement.
“This is the first official act of the new Australian government, demonstrating my government’s commitment to tackling climate change.“
The center-left leader said ratification of the treaty on combating global warming was approved by the first meeting of the government’s executive council and later by the governor general.
Ratification will come into force 90 days after the commitment is handed to the United Nations, he said, meaning Australia will become a full member of the Kyoto Protocol before the end of March 2008.
The move leaves the United States as the only major developed nation that has refused to ratify the pact.
Rudd said Kyoto was considered to be “the most far-reaching agreement on environment and sustainable development ever adopted“.
“Australia’s official declaration today that we will become a member of the Kyoto Protocol is a significant step forward in our country’s efforts to fight climate change domestically--and with the international community,“ he said.
The move means Rudd is likely to receive a hero’s welcome when he undertakes his first foreign visit as prime minister to attend high level talks at a United Nations conference on climate change in Bali.

Israeli border policemen escort Palestinian prisoners towards the Gaza Strip at the crossing point of Erez, Israel, Dec. 3.

BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Dec. 3--Israel scheduled a daybreak release of 429 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture meant to strengthen Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after Israel and the Palestinians pledged at a US-sponsored Mideast conference to make efforts to conclude a peace treaty by the end of next year.
The Israeli prison service said 408 Palestinians would be sent to the West Bank and 21 to Gaza after being freed at dawn Monday from the Ketziot prison in the southern Israeli desert. Israel decided on the gesture before the Mideast summit last week, AP said.
Israel is holding about 9,000 prisoners.
On Sunday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dampened optimism from the Mideast conference, saying Israel does not recognize the 2008 target date as a deadline for peacemaking.
“There is no commitment to a specific timetable regarding these negotiations,“ Olmert told his Cabinet, adding that before steps are taken, Palestinians must halt militants’ attacks against Israel.
The comments reflected Olmert’s internal political weakness. Hard-liners have threatened to bring down his coalition government if he makes too many concessions in peace talks with the Palestinians.
In a message that could further anger Israeli hawks, Olmert’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, said he supports a measure to give compensation to Jewish settlers in the West Bank who leave their homes voluntarily, according to the Defense Ministry.
The measure would apply to settlements outside Israel’s separation wall along the West Bank. The contentious wall is meant to enclose main settlement blocs Israel plans to retain in a peace agreement, where two-thirds of the settlers live.
The others, about 80,000, could claim compensation if they leave.

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Dec. 3--Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appeared in court Monday where it was confirmed she would be facing extortion charges, a state prosecutor said.
The leader of the Awami League, one of Bangladesh’s main parties, was led to the dock amid high security at the special courtroom in the parliament complex in Dhaka, said state prosecutor Mohammad Borhanuddin, AFP reported.
“After the hearing, judge Azizul Haq ruled that his court has the jurisdiction to hear the extortion case against Sheikh Hasina,“ said Borhanuddin.
“The court has fixed December 9 the next date of hearing when it is expected to lay the charges against her and start the trial,“ he said.
State lawyers have said Sheikh Hasina, who ruled the country in 1996-2001, faces two charges--namely extortion and threatening to extort. If found guilty she faces a maximum of five years in jail.
She has been accused of extorting 29.9 million taka ($435,000) from the owner of a business group in 2000, and was arrested on July 16 after the owner filed an extortion case against her at a Dhaka police station.
Defense lawyers have been trying to challenge the legality of the case, with Sheikh Hasina claiming the country’s emergency government is merely trying to force her out of politics.
The politician, who is being held at a house inside the parliament complex, is among 150 high-profile figures who have been arrested as part of the government’s anti-graft campaign.