Gunmen attack Yemen's main airport
April 7, 2012 -- Updated 1520 GMT (2320 HKT)
Gunmen attack Yemen's main airport
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Officials: Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar threatens to bring down aircraft if his demands aren't met
- He is one of several relatives of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to be sacked
- The military shakeup is part of promised reforms by the new president
- Saleh was forced to step down in February
Two officials at Sanaa International Airport told CNN that the former commander of Yemen's air force had warned he would bring down any civil aircraft departing or arriving the airport unless his demands are met.
The commander, Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, is one of several relatives of the former president who were replaced in a major military shakeup. Al-Ahmar refused to give up his post.
Ali Saleh was forced to step down from power in February.
Al-Ahmar, the half-brother of the former president, was given a new position as assistant to the minister of defense in Friday's presidential decree, but has refused to leave his air force post.
The officials said he threatened to cause chaos if three opposition military officials are not removed from their military posts along with him.
The airport was not allowing flights to arrive or depart the country due to the tension, according to security officials at the airport who wished to remain anonymous.
Friday's shakeup was announced in a statement by a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington and attributed to current President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi.
"President Hadi promised major change in the military, and tonight that promise was delivered," said Mohammed Albasha, the embassy spokesman.
"This is the biggest military shakeup in modern Yemen history."
Another of the sacked Salehs was the former president's nephew, Tareq Saleh, who had been head of the presidential guard.
Two prominent members of Ali Saleh's family remained in powerful military posts however after Friday's shakeup.
They are Brig. Gen. Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is the former president's son and head of the Republican Guard, and Brig. Gen. Yahya Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, the former president's nephew and head of Central Security Forces.
Minutes after the military decrees were announced, a senior opposition leader's residence was heavily shelled.
Opposition parties condemned the attacks on the residential compound of Hameed al-Ahmar, president of the opposition Dialogue Committee.
"Attacks on al-Ahmar come in retaliation against the president's orders to remove senior Ali Saleh aides from their military positions," said Fowzy al-Jaradi, the spokesman for al-Ahmar's office.
The military committee, the country's highest security authority, warned all political and military factions to be cautious and urged them to help in defusing the current tension.
Opposition factions in Yemen have refused to participate in the anticipated national dialogue unless complete military reforms take place first.
Anti-government demonstrators demanded last year that all of the former president's relatives be replaced.
After months of massive street protests, Ali Abdullah Saleh finally stepped down in February in exchange for immunity, as part of a power transfer deal brokered by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. However, he remained president of the ruling General People's Congress party.
The restructuring of the military was part of the negotiated power transfer deal and was promised by the new president.
CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.
Famed Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi dies
Fang Lizhi in 1989 wrote an open letter to the Communist Party leader, calling for the release of
- Fang Lizhi, 76, a famed Chinese democracy activist, has died in the United States
- He was of three intellectuals criticized during "anti-bourgeois liberalization" campaign
- Fang continued to speak out for democracy
- Fang was a physics professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson
He was 76.
Fang died Friday in Tucson, Arizona, according to Wang Dan, a prominent student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests.
"My most, most respected teacher Fang Lizhi has died," Wang wrote on Facebook. "I am immensely sad. I hope that the Chinese people will forever remember him, that in our history there was a thinker named Fang (Lizhi) who inspired a 1989 generation and awakened the people to aspire to human rights and democracy."
He added, "Sooner or later, there will be a day when China will be proud of Fang Lizhi."
Fang, an accomplished astrophysicist, served as vice president of the elite University of Science and Technology at Hefei, Anhui province. He was dismissed from his job and expelled from the Communist Party in 1987, blamed for sympathizing with student protesters.
He was one of the three noted intellectuals who were publicly criticized during the "anti-bourgeois liberalization" campaign at that time, though Fang continued to speak out for democracy.
In early 1989, he wrote an open letter to Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping, calling for the release of Chinese political prisoners.
After the bloody crackdown during the Tiananmen protests on June 4, 1989, Fang and his wife Li Shuxian sought refuge inside the U.S. embassy in Beijing.
A year later, they were allowed to leave China for Britain and were soon after granted political refuge in the United States.
Fang spent the past years doing research at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Bo Xilai's ouster offers clues about China's secret leadership splits
Bo Xilai is seen on March 14, a day before he was removed from his post as party secretary of Chongqing.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Bo Xilai, once a powerful politician in China, was removed from his post in March
- Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Bo's story is intriguing -- was it power struggle or did he flout law?
- He says incidents like Bo's fall offer precious clues about state of Chinese government
- Wasserstrom: Factional politics indicate Communist Party is not as unified as it seems
Editor's note: Jeffrey Wasserstrom, an associate fellow at the Asia Society, is the author of "China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know" and co-editor of the forthcoming anthology, "Chinese Characters: Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land.
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A year ago, Bo Xilai was one of the most powerful and talked-about politicians in China. He was a member of China's ruling body, the Politburo, and he seemed to have a shot at gaining a seat on the key decision-making unit within it, the Standing Committee.But on March 15, he was removed from his post as the party secretary of Chongqing. Today, he's still one of the most-talked about men in China, not for how far he'll rise but for how far he's destined to fall.
Charismatic and determined, Bo was primarily known for launching bold initiatives, such as encouraging the mass singing of "red songs" (revolutionary anthems from the days of Chairman Mao Zedong) and pushing for high-profile drives to rid his inland, south-central city of organized crime.
The circumstances surrounding Bo's fall are intriguing. Was it a power struggle or did he flout the law? In February, one of Bo's top lieutenants, whom he abruptly demoted, went to the U.S. consulate presumably to seek political asylum. Last week, the British government asked the Chinese government to investigate the mysterious death of a British businessman who claimed to have close ties to Bo's family.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Despite this drama, Chinese leaders are hoping to minimize disturbances ahead of the major leadership transition of the Communist Party in the fall. So, what can we learn from this strange tale so far?
1. No matter how unified the leaders at the top of China's power structure seems, there are bound to be fissures.
Torture claims follow Bo Xilai scandal 
Reaction mixed to Bo Xilai's ouster 
Infighting in Chinese Communist Party Factional divides might be linked to a number of factors, such as personal style, family history, regional identity or ideology. After the Tiananmen protests of 1989, China's leaders tried to show that factionalism was a thing of the past. But today, we know fissures may be hidden but can surface anytime.
Riding on his popularity before his fall, Bo took the step of trying to secure a seat on the Standing Committee by an unusual method. He seemed more like someone campaigning for votes rather than striving simply to get a nod of approval from the top Chinese leaders. In a country that has very limited democracy and only local elections, this seemed out of place.
2. Historical symbolism can be useful, but it can turn into political dynamite.
Bo's rise was helped by his skill at playing to nostalgia for specific aspects of the Mao years. His promotion of old nationalist songs and presentation of himself as a fearless crusader against corruption and urban crime won him broad praise and support. But invoking the Maoist past proved to be a double-edged sword.
The first clear indication that Bo was about to fall came when Premier Wen Jiabao gave a speech in March when he talked of the danger of any recurrence of "Cultural Revolution" patterns. To invoke the specter of the Cultural Revolution is always to conjure up images of destabilizing "turmoil" of a kind most Chinese would rather never see again. Bo's tactics made it all too easy for his political opponents to call him out.
3. Purges in China are unpredictable.
It's hard to figure out what to call what has happened to Bo, who has been demoted but not detained and retains membership in the Politburo. He is definitely on the outs, so the term "purge" comes to mind, but the story is not finished.
Consider Hua Guofeng, Mao's immediate successor, who was pushed aside after a few years by Deng Xiaoping, yet lived out his days as a minor official. Or Deng himself, who was in favor, out of favor and then back in favor as the leader of the Communist Party.
At the other end of the spectrum is Zhao Ziyang, a chosen successor to Deng who was ousted for taking too lenient a stance toward the 1989 protests and remained under house arrest until his death. And powerful mayors who were made scapegoats for anti-corruption drives and eventually executed. We just don't know at what point on this spectrum Bo will end up.
Bo's story seems hard to follow for outsiders, but nonetheless, it's worth watching.
In China, the most important leadership decisions are made by small groups huddling behind closed doors. This means that unexpected incidents such as Bo's fall offer precious if hard to decipher signs. Chinese high politics remains a black box in many ways, and like those in airplanes, its secrets will only be revealed when there's a crash. There's no indication of that happening to the Communist Party anytime soon, so for now we should make the most of the hints.
One thing we can be sure of: We haven't seen the last of factional politics in the Communist Party.
Perhaps the strongest evidence of this is how the official press has been full of statements about the leadership being unified. When this sort of message is made too forcefully, there is likely widespread anxiety about its truthfulness.
Mali coup leader agrees to return power
Malian junta leader, Captain Amadou Sanogo, makes a declaration at the Kati military camp near Bamako on Sunday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Coup leaders to hand power back to civilian government
- The parties agreed to set up a transition process leading to a presidential election
- The announcement comes after rebels declare independence for territory in northern Mali
- The international community had imposed restrictions on Mali amid turmoil
The statement was read in French over ORTM, the state TV network.
The parties agreed to set up a transition process leading to a presidential election, Sanogo said. A transitional prime minister will lead the transition "to manage the crisis in the north of Mali and to organize free, transparent and democratic elections in accordance with a road map," he said.
The international community -- including West African states, the African Union and the United States -- had called for the immediate restoration of constitutional rule. The African Union and ECOWAS had also slapped the military junta with travel and economic restrictions, and had frozen its assets.
Sanctions targeted the supporters and relatives of the military junta and all those involved in contributing to the "destabilization" of Mali, the African Union said.
Under the sanctions, five neighboring nations were to close their borders to landlocked Mali except for humanitarian purposes and deny the nation access to their ports, freeze its accounts in regional banks, and suspend its participation in cultural and sporting events.
The announcement of a promised return to civilian rule came shortly after separatist rebels, who had captured large areas of Mali's vast Sahara region in the north of the country, declared independence for a region they call Azawad.
Events leading to military coup in Mali The declaration was made in a statement posted online by the secretary general of the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA).
The claim of independence followed "more than 50 years of corruption and poor governance with the complicity of the army and the politicians, putting people's lives at risk in Azawad," the MNLA said.
In a statement, the African Union expressed its "total rejection" of the rebels' independence claim.
The African Union will do all it can to restore the authority of the government of Mali to its entire territory and "bring to an end the attacks being carried out by armed and terrorist groups in the northern part of the country," it said.
French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said the declaration of independence in northern Mali was meaningless if it was not recognized by African states. France is the former colonial power in Mali.
The Tuareg rebels' seizure of northern Mali followed a military coup last month that toppled the government and threw the country into turmoil.
The rebels had called a cease-fire Thursday, saying they had captured key territory in the Sahara region and achieved their military mission.
The Tuaregs, who consider Azawad to be the cradle of their nomadic civilization, launched an insurgency in January to achieve a separate homeland. The conflict has uprooted more than 200,000 people from their homes.
Buoyed by the chaos after last month's coup, the rebels swept through the north and wrested control of several strategic cities, including Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu.
The rebels effectively split the West African nation in two, and northern areas remained volatile and tense, preventing aid agencies from accessing displaced people, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday.
ECOWAS representatives met Thursday in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan, to discuss possible military intervention in Mali to restore democratically elected Amadou Toumani Toure to the presidency.
After the March 22 coup, Mali, long a shining example of democracy and stability in Africa, was plunged into crisis.
Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu experienced days of looting, abductions and chaos after they were occupied by armed groups late last week.
In the capital, Bamako, the military leaders who had overthrown the president because of his alleged inability to handle the Tuareg rebellion postponed plans Thursday for a national convention aimed at addressing political woes.
Austerity drives up suicide rate in debt-ridden Greece
Greek man: Why I set myself on fire
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Suicide rate in Greece jumped 40% year-on-year in first five months of 2011
- Apostolos Polyzonis set himself on fire outside his bank last year after falling into financial trouble
- Polyzonis: "I had lost my right to be a free Greek"
- Dimitris Christoulas shot himself Wednesday in central Athens during morning rush hour
Desperate and angry, Polyzonis stood outside the bank in central Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, doused himself in fuel and surrendered to the flames.
"At that moment, I saw my life as worthless, I really didn't care if I was going to live or die," recalls Polyzonis, who says he was hit by financial troubles after the bank recalled a loan given to him for his business.
"My sense of living was much lower than my sense of self-respect and pride, the fact that I had lost my right to be a free Greek," adds Polyzonis.
Polyzonis, a father of three, was eventually saved by police. He recovered after spending seven days in hospital on life support.
His public protest made headlines and touched a nerve with many Greeks bearing the burden of a worsening debt crisis. One in five Greeks was unemployed last year, according to Eurostat figures. Many more have suffered unprecedented hardship due to increasing pension and salary cuts.
"I don't feel proud about it, no way, but all these situations made me lose my self-respect and feel like I've been deprived of my rights," says Polyzonis, "because being able to pay your taxes is not only an obligation but also a right. People should have the possibility to pay their taxes, to pay their obligations to others, to offer the basic goods to their family so they can feel that they live with self-respect and dignity."
Until now, Polyzonis's self-immolation was the most vivid image of a singular public act of protest in a country that's been shaken by anti-austerity violence.
But Greece was jolted even more Wednesday after a 77-year-old man took his own life in the busy Syntagma Square, central Athens, the scene of several violent clashes between anti-austerity protesters and the police in recent months.
Just a few hundred yards away from the Greek Parliament, retired pharmacist Dimitris Christoulas shot himself with a handgun amid the morning rush hour, in what was apparently a protest over the financial crisis gripping the nation.
Minor clashes between police and protesters followed a vigil held Wednesday night to mark his death. Up to 1,000 people gathered for another rally Thursday in Syntagma Square, which was largely peaceful apart from a few scuffles between small groups of protesters, Athens police said.
In his suicide note, Christoulas wrote that the government had made it impossible for him to survive, according to Greek state TV.
Christoulas's death can be added to an increasing number of suicides in Greece, as more people feel hopeless amid the worst economic crisis in the country's recent history: according to the health ministry data, the suicide rate jumped about 40% in the first five months of 2011 compared with a year earlier.
"The further we go into the crisis, the more things get ugly," says Aris Violatzis of Klimaka, a non-governmental organization that runs a suicide helpline in Greece.
The group -- Klimaka translates as "scale" -- says it receives up to 100 calls a day, with three of four callers citing economic problems as their main concern. In 2007, just before Greece fell into recession, the helpline used to take 10 calls a day maximum, explains Violatzis, and only one in four callers mentioned economic issues.
"The social framework in Greece has become pathogenic -- we have a morbid social environment where one of its symptoms is suicide," he adds.
Under its second bailout program, approved last month, Greece has agreed to implement a series of austerity measures and undertake broader reforms to make its economy more competitive.
New taxes, rising unemployment and cuts to pay, pensions and social welfare provisions have brought many ordinary Greeks to their knees.
As Greece remains mired in financial woes -- the country's economy is heading for its fifth year of recession -- many now fear that Christoulas's public act of protest could find more imitators.
"I believe there are going to be more suicides and that's what got the government worrying," says archaeologist Despoina Koutsoumpa, who was among the hundreds who rushed yesterday in Syntagma Square to pay tributes to Christoulas.
"His act was a punch in the stomach for all of us. It made you realize that the overthrowing of these policies requires self-sacrifice, like in Tunisia and in Egypt where hundreds of people died," Koutsoumpa, a regular at the anti-austerity demonstrations in Athens, told CNN.
"In Greece there are also hundreds of people dying because of the crisis, people we don't see -- there are suicides over debts, there are people dying in the streets because they don't have anything to eat," she adds.
"A lot of people here understand that there will have to be even sacrifices of people in order to get rid of the situation."
Seven months after setting himself on fire, Polyzonis says more and more Greeks find themselves close to the desperate condition he was in last September.
"The situation is becoming every day worse," he says. "Every day people lose their jobs, every day people are unable to pay rent for their house, the basics to find something to eat -- the last step before doing what I did or what another human being yesterday did in Greece."
Pakistan president to visit India amid warming ties
-- President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan is scheduled to visit India on Sunday, the first by a Pakistani head of state in seven years, amid thawing relations between the two nuclear-armed archrivals.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India will host a lunch in honor of Zardari in New Delhi before the Pakistani leader travels to the shrine of a revered Sufi saint at Ajmer in Rajasthan state, officials said.
Zardari's visit Sunday, a private trip, comes in the wake of Pakistan's recent promise to grant India "most favored nation" trading status.
The South Asian neighbors have fought three wars, two of them over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, since the 1947 partition of the subcontinent into Islamic Pakistan and Hindu-majority, secular India after independence from Britain.
Last year, both nations pledged not to let their fragile peace process unravel again over the range of thorny issues that put them at odds.
After meeting her Indian counterpart in New Delhi in July, the Pakistani foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, said she believed that "it is the desire and commitment of both the governments to make it an uninterrupted and uninterruptable process."
Their meeting came barely two weeks after three deadly explosions ripped through Mumbai, killing 27 people. The attack revived painful memories of the 2008 terrorist siege in Mumbai, for which India blamed Pakistani-based extremists. Pakistan was quick to condemn the 2011 bombings of Mumbai while New Delhi was careful not to point the finger at Islamabad.
In 2004, the nations agreed to negotiations that cover eight issues, including Kashmir, terrorism and Pakistan's concerns over river dams on the Indian side of the border, which it sees as a threat to its water supplies.
Since then, successive governments have held talks in an effort to end the historical acrimony.
Singh and Zardari hailed results from the dialogue in September 2008 as the countries completed four rounds of diplomatic meetings.
But engagements were suspended two months later in November 2008 after the terrorist assault on Mumbai, which left more than 160 people dead.
Over the past two years, India and Pakistan have held a series of high-level meetings in their bid to put their peace dialogue back on track, a process considered crucial to regional stability ahead of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
In 2011, New Delhi and Islamabad agreed to resume talks.
"It's a win-win situation when Pakistan and India are engaging in dialogue, are talking to each other, and are building better cooperation," Mark Toner, a deputy spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said Thursday regarding Zardari's upcoming India visit.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan, who met Singh on the margins of a nuclear security summit in Seoul, South Korea, last month, also invited the Indian leader to his country.
"Zardari has chosen a visit to Ajmer as a reason to be in New Delhi," Sanjaya Baru, Singh's former media adviser, wrote in a column for the Indian Express on Friday.
Baru suggested Singh "could choose a visit to his place of birth, the village Gah, as a good reason to go to Lahore, and maybe even Islamabad."
Singh was born in Gah during British rule over the subcontinent. Today, the village is part of the Pakistani province of Punjab.
Gen. Pervez Musharraf was the last Pakistani president to visit India, in 2005, upon invitation by Singh to watch a cricket match between the two countries.
"Nothing need come out of such visits. No joint statement, no agreements, no final solution. But each such visit and the ensuing dialogue will make it easier for both governments to walk down the road that Singh and Musharraf defined," Baru wrote.
Other observers also said the Sunday lunch meeting between the Indian and Pakistani leaders was encouraging.
"The lunch being hosted by the prime minister for a Pakistani president on a private visit is a welcome step," said Uday Bhaskar, a strategic analyst. "These gestures are in the long-term interest of India and that of the region."
Ahead of proposed peace, Syria shelling continues
Activists: Assaults in Syria ongoing
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: At least 52 people are killed in fighting across Syria, an opposition group says
- NEW: More than a million are affected by the "rapidly deteriorating ... situation," the U.N. says
- Syria has said it will withdraw its military forces from towns and cities by Tuesday
- Military shelling is reported in the Damascus suburbs
Despite the agreed-upon deal, Syria continued attacks in various parts of the country, opposition groups reported.
"The 10 April timeline to fulfill the government's implementation of its commitments, as endorsed by the Security Council, is not an excuse for continued killing," the spokesman said.
Speaking for Ban, he said the secretary-general is concerned at the "rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation" in Syria, which is now affecting more than 1 million people.
"The Syrian authorities remain fully accountable for grave violations o
f human rights and international humanitarian law. These must stop at once," he said.
At least 52 people were killed around the country Friday, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said.
The regime of President Bashar al-Assad shelled homes in the Damascus suburbs, seemingly at random, the group said.
The military action appears to bolster the view of those who doubt al-Assad's commitment to a peace plan championed by Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary-general who is the point person on Syria for the United Nations and Arab League.
A deal he brokered -- and that al-Assad said he agreed to -- calls for a cease-fire by the government and the opposition, and a Syrian-led political process to end the crisis. It also calls for Syrian troops to leave many population centers, but troops remained in many of those places Friday.
In the Damascus suburb of Daraya, random shelling damaged a home, the LCC said. In the suburb of Douma, there were reports of "continued firing of missiles from tanks" toward homes, the group said.
Instead of withdrawing, the military was also active in the suburb of Harasta, where heavy clashes between the army and the opposition Free Syrian Army were reported.
CNN cannot independently verify opposition and government claims, as al-Assad's regime has severely restricted the access of international journalists.
Syria has been engulfed in violence since March 2011, when government forces began a brutal crackdown on a protest movement calling for reforms that quickly devolved into an uprising demanding the ouster of the regime.
The government has consistently blamed "armed terrorist groups" for the violence, but most reports from inside the country suggest it is pummeling neighborhoods in an attempt to wipe out dissidents.
World powers have been working to stop the fighting, which the United Nations estimates has killed at least 9,000 people. The LCC puts the toll at more than 11,000 people.
Of those killed Friday, the LCC said at least 28 died in the opposition stronghold city of Homs, which has been the scene of some of the most intense clashes in recent months.
In nearby Rastan, government forces were reportedly firing rockets at opposition strongholds within the city, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Shelling was also reported in Andan in the Aleppo province, with Syrian forces raiding the homes of suspected opposition members, the LCC reported. The group said that at least 12 people died there.
Factional fighting among civilians was also reported Friday, further challenging the viability of a cease-fire agreement.
Fierce fighting erupted between armed men loyal to al-Assad and rebels from opposing villages.
At least two women were killed and four were injured in fighting that broke out between military defectors and armed men loyal to al-Assad in the beleaguered western province of Homs, the Syrian Observatory said.
Clashes in the town of Hula reportedly occurred between military defectors from one nearby village and armed men loyal to the regime from two other villages, the opposition group said.
The reports of fighting between villagers with opposing loyalties highlight the divisions inside Syria, a nation with a majority Sunni population that is governed by al-Assad -- a minority Alawite, which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Some analysts have expressed concern about what the Sunni-dominated Muslim Brotherhood might do if al-Assad's Alawite-dominated regime falls.
The Syrian government has said it will implement the peace plan, saying it has taken steps to comply. Its ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, acknowledged that fighting was still going on -- but he blamed that on opposition groups he said were being armed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, which currently holds the presidency of the U.N. General Assembly.
The government has committed to the April 10 deadline but is demanding a guarantee from Annan that once its troops pull back, other groups will do the same.
Chavez to return to Cuba for cancer treatment
Cuban President Raul Castro, left, greeted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on his arrival in Cuba last week.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- He will meet with his Cabinet before he leaves Venezuela again, he says
- The Venezuelan president says he is recovering from cancer
- Speculation has abounded about his health and political future
- Doctors have operated on him twice to remove cancerous tumors
Chavez, speaking by telephone from Caracas with state-run VTV, had returned Thursday morning from his latest round of treatment on the island.
He will meet with members of his Cabinet before he leaves Venezuela again, he said Friday.
The announcement came a day after an emotional Chavez discussed his struggle with illness, tearing up at times as he spoke Thursday night at a Mass in western Venezuela.
"Christ ... give me life, because I still have things to do for the people and this country. Do not take me yet," he said.
At a service in his home state of Barinas, Chavez described cancer as "a true threat that marks the end of the path for many people. The end of the physical path, that's the truth."
But Chavez said that he was recovering, adding that he had "much faith, much hope, much willpower to defeat this threat, as many people have, with the help of God and medical science."
He ended his sometimes somber, sometimes jocular remarks at the Holy Thursday Mass with what he said was his message for God.
"Give me your crown, Christ, give it to me. Let me bleed. Give me your cross, 100 crosses, so I can carry them. But give me life, because I still have things to do for the people and this country," Chavez said. "Do not take me yet. Give me your cross, give me your thorns, give me your blood. I am prepared to carry it. But with life, Christ. Amen."
The 57-year-old president has not specified the type of cancer he is battling, and the government has released few specifics, fueling widespread speculation about his health and political future.
He had returned to Venezuela early Thursday after a second round of radiation treatment in Cuba.
Walking unaided, Chavez held court on the tarmac of the airport in Barinas, telling well-wishers who had gathered to welcome him that his treatment went well.
"So far, there has been no adverse reaction to the treatment; the body has assimilated it well," Chavez said. He was greeted by members of his family, government officials and supporters.
Until Thursday, Chavez had been in Cuba since March 31. Doctors in the Caribbean island nation have operated on him twice to remove cancerous tumors, Chavez has said.
Since the beginning of the year, Chavez has spent 34 days in Havana.
"All the tests I've undergone have given positive results suggesting physical recovery," he said Thursday on arriving at the airport.
The outspoken, flamboyant socialist leader has led Venezuela since 1999 and has pledged to run for re-election in October.
Venezuela's foreign ministry said Wednesday that Chavez spoke about his health in a lengthy phone conversation the day before with former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, who recently announced that his own cancer had gone into remission.
"President Chavez told his brother Lula that the treatment is going very well, and so is the political and economic situation of Venezuela," Venezuela's foreign ministry said in a statement summarizing the phone conversation.
