w term for the president following his re-election in October.[BROWSE: 10 Countries in Deep Trouble] A historic period of this second decade of the 21st century is starting, with our commander leading, Maduro said.But glaring above all in the at times surreal event was Chavez's absence from the balcony of the presidential palace where he has so often spoken for hours to similar crowds, chiding his opponents and called for a socialist revolution.As in past rallies before the president himself, Chavez's face beamed from shirts, signs and banners. Some blew horns and danced to music blaring from speakers mounted on trucks. Nearly everyone wore the color of his Bolivarian Revolution movement as the swelling crowd grew into a sea of red and spilled from the main avenue onto side streets.The crowd chanted: We are all Chavez! It was the first time in Venezuela's history that a president has missed his inauguration, said Elias Pino Iturrieta, a prominent historian. Perhaps it's the first chapter of what they call Chavismo without Chavez. The Supreme Court on Wednesday backed the plan to put off the inauguration indefinitely, saying the president could be sworn in before the court at a later date.Opposition lawmaker Maria Corina Machado called that a well-aimed coup against the Venezuelan Constitution and said she and others will continue to denounce internationally what they view as government authority being illegally usurped by Maduro.She told The Associated Press that she believes it's being directed from Cuba, and by Cubans, and renewed calls for National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello to take over provisionally until it becomes clear whether Chavez is fit to remain in office something that Cabello and the government have made clear is not in their plans. An insider's guide to politics and policy, available on the iPad or as a PDF download.[标签:标题]
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) On the eve of an unimaginably long walk one that starts in Africa, winds through the Middle East, across Asia, hops over to Alaska, goes down the western United States, then Central and South America and ends in Chile one question nagged journalist Paul Salopek: Should he take his house keys? Salopek on Thursday departed a small Ethiopian village and took the first steps of a planned 21,000-mile (34,000-kilometer) walk that will cross some 30 borders, where he will encounter dozens of languages and scores of ethnic groups. The 50-year-old's quest is to retrace man's first migration from Africa across the world in a go-slow journey that will force him to immerse himself in a variety of cultures so he can tell a global mosaic of people stories. The Ethiopia-to-Chile walk which took human ancestors some 50,000 years to make is called Out of Eden and is sponsored by National Geographic, the Knight Foundation and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, the American plans to write one major article a year with periodic updates every 100 miles or so. "Often the places that we fl Related articles:

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