Chavez’s cancer rattles Venezuela

Chavez’s cancer rattles Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez’s revelation that he is battling cancer raises questions about the future of his drive to bring socialism to Venezuela and create a Latin America free of Washington’s influence.

The biggest question, though, is just how sick is he?

Suddenly, the issue isn’t so much about how long Chavez should govern after 12 often tumultuous years in power, but how long he can.

In a surprise announcement Thursday night, Chavez disclosed that he had a cancerous tumor removed while on a trip to Cuba last month, though he didn’t give details about what kind of cancer or say how soon he might return home.

Prince Albert II of Monaco marries

MONACO

After waiting for nearly 30 years, the glitzy principality of Monaco has a new princess.

Charlene Wittstock, a one-time Olympic swimmer from South Africa, married Prince Albert II in an intimate civil ceremony Friday.

Wittstock succeeds Grace Kelly, the Hollywood beauty who wed Albert’s late father, Prince Rainier III, in 1956 and had three children with him before dying in a car crash in 1982.

1,500 evacuated in fire at London hotel

LONDON

A fire at London’s Park Lane Hilton hotel forced the evacuation of about 1,500 people, including the front man of rock group Black Eyed Peas.

Around 20 firefighters were sent to the luxury hotel early Friday evening after the fire department received reports of smoke in a second-floor kitchen vent and in the basement.

The Daily Mail newspaper published pictures of Black Eyed Peas singer Will-i-am walking out of the hotel, covering his mouth with the top of his T-shirt. The singer was in town to perform at an open-air festival in Hyde Park, across the street from the hotel.

Metropolitan Police said nobody had been injured in the blaze.

Maria Shriver files for divorce

LOS ANGELES

Six weeks after Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed he had fathered a child out of wedlock, his wife, Maria Shriver, filed divorce papers Friday to end their marriage of 25 years.

The former television journalist and Kennedy family heir cited irreconcilable differences but offered no additional details about the breakup.

She also did not list a date when the couple separated, although they announced they had done so May 9.

A week later, the former action star and former governor admitted he fathered a child with a member of his household staff years ago.

Vulnerable feel pinch of shutdown

ST. PAUL, Minn.

The blind are losing reading services. A help line for the elderly has gone silent. And poor families are scrambling after the state stopped child-care subsidies.

Hours after a political impasse forced a widespread government shutdown, Minnesota’s most-vulnerable residents and about 22,000 laid-off state employees began feeling the effects Friday. With no immediate end in sight to a dispute over taxes and spending, political leaders spent the day blaming one another for their failure to pass a budget that solves the state’s $5 billion deficit.

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and GOP legislative leaders said they had no plans to talk over the holiday weekend, guaranteeing the shutdown will linger at least well into next week.

Associated Press