Venezuela's Chavez fighting severe lung infection

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan lawmakers will meet Saturday in a session that could shed light on what steps may be taken if President Hugo Chavez is too sick to be sworn in for a new term next week.
Legislators will choose a president, two vice presidents and other leaders of the National Assembly, which is controlled by a pro-Chavez majority. Whoever is elected National Assembly president could end up being the interim president of Venezuela if Chavez is unable to be inaugurated on Thursday as scheduled.
Brewing disagreements over how to handle a possible transition of power also could be aired at the session, coming just five days before the scheduled inauguration day specified in the constitution. Chavez's health crisis has raised contentious questions ahead of the swearing-in, including whether the inauguration could legally be postponed.
The government revealed this week that Chavez is fighting a severe lung infection and receiving treatment for "respiratory deficiency" more than three weeks after undergoing cancer surgery in Cuba. The announcement suggests a deepening crisis for the 58-year-old president and has fed speculation that he likely is not well enough to travel to Caracas for the inauguration.
National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello called on Chavez backers to show up for the legislative session and demonstrate their support.
"This National Assembly is revolutionary and socialist. It will remain beside the people and our commander," Cabello said in one of several messages on his Twitter account. "If the opposition thinks it will find a space in the National Assembly to conspire against the people, it's mistaken once again. It will be defeated."
Opposition leaders have demanded that the government provide more specific information about Chavez's condition, and say a new election should be held within 30 days if the president doesn't return to Venezuela by inauguration day.
Some Chavez allies say the inauguration date is not a hard deadline, and argue that the president should be given more time to recover from his surgery if necessary.
Chavez hasn't spoken publicly or been seen since his Dec. 11 operation in Cuba. In a Thursday night update, the government for the first time described the president's respiratory infection as "severe," the strongest confirmation yet that Chavez is having serious trouble breathing after days of rumors about his condition worsening.
"Chavez has faced complications as a result of a severe respiratory infection. This infection has led to respiratory deficiency that requires Commander Chavez to remain in strict compliance with his medical treatment," Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said Thursday night, reading a statement on television.
The government's characterization raised the possibility that Chavez might be breathing with the assistance of a machine. But the government did not address that question and didn't give details of the president's treatment.
Independent medical experts consulted by The Associated Press said the government's account indicated a potentially dangerous turn in Chavez's condition, but said it's unclear whether he is attached to a ventilator.
"It appears he has a very severe pneumonia that he suffered after a respiratory failure. It is not very specific," said Dr. Alejandro Rios-Ramirez, a pulmonary specialist in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Dr. Gustavo Medrano, a lung specialist at the Centro Medico hospital in Caracas, said he has seen similar cases in cancer patients who have undergone surgery, and "in general it's very bad, above all after a surgery like the one they performed on him."
"I don't know the magnitude of the infection he has, how much of his lungs have been compromised, how much other organs are being affected. That's not clear," Medrano said.
"What's most likely is that he's on mechanical ventilation," Medrano added. However, he said, while respiratory deficiency means there is an abnormally low concentration of oxygen in the blood, depending on the severity it can be treated in various ways.
Dr. Michael Pishvaian, an oncologist at Georgetown University's Lombardi Cancer Center in Washington, agreed that such respiratory infections can run the gamut from "a mild infection requiring antibiotics and supplemental oxygen to life-threatening respiratory complications."
"It could be a very ominous sign," Pishvaian said. He said it's possible Chavez could be on "life support," but added it's impossible to be sure without more details.
The government expressed confidence in Chavez's medical team and condemned what it called a "campaign of psychological warfare" in the international media regarding the president's condition. Officials have urged Venezuelans not to heed rumors about Chavez's condition.
Opposition leaders have blamed vague information coming from the government for the rumors, and demanded a full medical report.
The Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional criticized what it called an "information vacuum" in an editorial on Friday, saying Venezuelans are in the dark because "no one speaks clearly from the government." The newspaper called the situation reminiscent of secrecy that surrounded the deaths of Josef Stalin in the former Soviet Union and Mao Zedong in China.
State television repeatedly played video of a song in which rappers encourage Venezuelans to pray, saying of Chavez: "You will live and triumph." A recording of a speech by Chavez appears during the song, saying: "I will be with you always!"
Chavez has undergone four cancer-related surgeries since June 2011 for an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer. He also has undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
He was re-elected in October to another six-year term, and two months later announced that the cancer had returned. Chavez said before the operation that if his illness prevented him from remaining president, Vice President Nicolas Maduro should be his party's candidate to replace him in a new election.
This week, Cabello and the president's elder brother Adan joined a parade of visitors who saw Chavez in Havana, and then returned to Caracas on Thursday along with Maduro.
Brazil's state-run Agencia Brasil news agency reported Friday that President Dilma Rousseff's top international adviser, Marco Aurelio Garcia, made a one-day visit to Cuba and spoke with Venezuelan and Cuban officials about Chavez's health. It was unclear if Garcia actually saw Chavez, or what day he visited Cuba.
Telephone calls placed after hours to Brazil's Foreign Ministry and presidential offices were not immediately answered.
The Venezuelan Constitution says the presidential oath should be taken Jan. 10 before the National Assembly. Government officials have raised the possibility that Chavez might not be well enough to do that, without saying what will happen if he can't. The constitution also says that if the president is unable to be sworn in before the National Assembly, he may take the oath office before the Supreme Court.
The constitution says that if a president or president-elect dies or is declared unable to continue in office, presidential powers should be held temporarily by the president of the National Assembly and a new election should be held within 30 days.
On the streets of Caracas, some of Chavez's supporters say they're still holding out hope he can recover.
"He's the only leader of the revolution," said Miriam Bolivar, who belongs to a grassroots pro-Chavez group. "We can't imagine life without him. He's our life. This is one more battle and we have faith that he'll come out it unscathed once again."
Other Chavez supporters say they're unsure what to believe about his condition and express misgivings about the president's lieutenants.
"We hope that what they're telling us is true," said Ricardo Maya, a supporter who was reading a newspaper in a city square. "Chavez has all my confidence. He always speaks the truth. I can't say the same about the people around him.

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Venezuela VP: Chavez could be sworn in by court

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez could be sworn in by the Supreme Court later on if he's not able to take the oath of office before lawmakers next week because of his struggle with cancer, his vice president said Friday.
The stance announced by Vice President Nicolas Maduro conflicts with the argument by some opposition leaders that the president of the National Assembly would have to take over as interim president if Chavez were unable to attend his inauguration as scheduled next Thursday.
Maduro's remarks sent the strongest signal yet that the government may seek to postpone Chavez's inauguration due to his delicate condition after surgery in Cuba. His position appeared likely to generate friction between the government and opposition over the legality of putting off the swearing-in, which the constitution says should occur on Thursday before the National Assembly.
Maduro says Chavez, as a re-elected president, remains in office beyond the inauguration date stipulated in the constitution, and could be sworn in if necessary before the Supreme Court at a later date to be determined.
"The formality of his swearing-in can be resolved before the Supreme Court of Justice, at the time (the court) deems in coordination with the head of state, Commander Hugo Chavez," Maduro said in a televised interview.
As for the opposition, Maduro said, "they should respect our constitution." The vice president held up a small blue copy of the constitution and read aloud passages relating to such procedures.
Opposition leaders have demanded that the government provide more specific information about Chavez's condition, and say that if the president doesn't return to Venezuela by inauguration day, the president of the National Assembly should take over the presidency on an interim basis. But Maduro echoed other Chavez allies in suggesting the inauguration date is not a firm deadline, and that the president should be given more time to recover from his cancer surgery if needed.
"Maduro's comments are not surprising. The government holds all the cards in the current situation, particularly given the compassion for Chavez's serious illness. It has interpreted the constitution loosely, to its own political advantage," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. "In this way Maduro is able to buy some time, assert his authority, and rally support within Chavismo. He puts the opposition on notice and throws it off balance."
As for Chavez, Maduro reiterated that the president is fighting a "complex" health battle but expressed hope that eventually "we'll see him and we'll hear him."
"He has a right to rest and tranquility, and to recuperate," Maduro said on state television, speaking with Information Minister Ernesto Villegas.
"The president right now is the exercising president. He has his government formed," Maduro said. He read a portion of the constitution detailing procedures for declaring an "absolute absence" of the president, which would trigger a new election within 30 days, and declared that "none of these grounds can be raised by the Venezuelan opposition."
The Venezuelan Constitution says the presidential oath should be taken Jan. 10 before the National Assembly. It also says that if the president is unable to be sworn in before the National Assembly, he may take the oath office before the Supreme Court, and some legal experts have noted that the sentence mentioning the court does not mention a date.
Others disagree. Ruben Ortiz, a lawyer and opposition supporter, argued that Maduro is wrong and that under the constitution the inauguration date can't be postponed.
If Chavez is not in Caracas to be sworn in on Thursday, Ortiz said in a phone interview, "the president of the National Assembly should take charge." He added that "there is a formal separation between one term and the other."
But Shifter said the opposition is on the defensive, with its only tactic being to insist that Jan. 10 is the established date.
"Chavez controls all the key institutions, and it's doubtful that most Venezuelans will get too upset about defying what seems a fairly minor constitutional provision," Shifter said. "Attacking the government because it has no objection to the Supreme Court swearing in Chavez after Jan. 10 is not exactly a winning political strategy for the opposition."
A delay also serves the government's purposes, Shifter said. "The government wants more time, whether to see if Chavez gets better, or to consolidate their ranks and further splinter and demoralize the opposition."
Venezuelan lawmakers will meet Saturday in a session that could shed more light on what steps Chavez's allies plan to take.
Legislators will choose a president, two vice presidents and other leaders of the National Assembly, which is controlled by a pro-Chavez majority. Whoever is elected National Assembly president could eventually end up being the interim president of Venezuela under some circumstances.
Brewing disagreements over how to handle a possible transition of power could also be aired at the session.
"If the opposition thinks it will find a space in the National Assembly to conspire against the people, it's mistaken once again. It will be defeated," National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello said in a message on Twitter, saying the legislature will stand with Chavez.
The government revealed this week that Chavez is fighting a severe lung infection and receiving treatment for "respiratory deficiency" more than three weeks after undergoing cancer surgery in Cuba.
Chavez hasn't spoken publicly or been seen since his Dec. 11 operation in Cuba, and the latest announcement suggests a deepening crisis for the 58-year-old president.
But Maduro criticized rumors surrounding Chavez's condition, saying: "He has a right to his privacy, and to recover."
The government's account of Chavez's complications raised the possibility that he might be breathing with the assistance of a machine. But the government did not address that question and didn't give details of the president's treatment.
Independent medical experts consulted by The Associated Press said the government's account indicated a potentially dangerous turn in Chavez's condition, but said it's unclear whether he is attached to a ventilator.
Dr. Gustavo Medrano, a lung specialist at the Centro Medico hospital in Caracas, said he has seen similar cases in cancer patients who have undergone surgery, and "in general it's very bad, above all after a surgery like the one they performed on him."
"I don't know the magnitude of the infection he has, how much of his lungs have been compromised, how much other organs are being affected. That's not clear," Medrano said.
"What's most likely is that he's on mechanical ventilation," Medrano added. However, he said, while respiratory deficiency means there is an abnormally low concentration of oxygen in the blood, depending on the severity it can be treated in various ways.
Dr. Michael Pishvaian, an oncologist at Georgetown University's Lombardi Cancer Center in Washington, agreed that such respiratory infections can run the gamut from "a mild infection requiring antibiotics and supplemental oxygen to life-threatening respiratory complications."
"It could be a very ominous sign," Pishvaian said. He said it's possible Chavez could be on "life support," but added it's impossible to be sure without more details.
Opposition leaders have blamed vague information coming from the government for persistent rumors about Chavez's condition, and demanded a full medical report.
Chavez has undergone four cancer-related surgeries since June 2011 for an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer. He also has undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
He was re-elected in October to another six-year term, and two months later announced that the cancer had returned. Chavez said before the operation that if his illness prevented him from remaining president, Maduro should be his party's candidate to replace him in a new election.
The Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional criticized what it called an "information vacuum" in an editorial on Friday, saying Venezuelans are in the dark because "no one speaks clearly from the government." The newspaper called the situation reminiscent of secrecy that surrounded the deaths of Josef Stalin in the former Soviet Union and Mao Zedong in China.
State television repeatedly played video of a song in which rappers encourage Venezuelans to pray, saying of Chavez: "You will live and triumph." A recording of a speech by Chavez appears during the song, saying: "I will be with you always!

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Venezuela VP: Chavez can be sworn in by Court

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez can take the oath of office for his next term before the Supreme Court at a later date if the ailing leader isn't fit to be sworn in next week, his vice president said.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro sent the strongest signal yet that the government may seek to postpone Chavez's inauguration as the 58-year-old president fights a severe respiratory infection more than three weeks after undergoing cancer surgery in Cuba.
Maduro's position in a televised interview on Friday night generated new friction between the government and opposition over the swearing-in, which the constitution says should occur Thursday before the National Assembly. Some opposition leaders have argued that if Chavez doesn't make it back to Caracas by that date, the president of the National Assembly should take over as interim president.
Such brewing disagreements were expected to be aired on Saturday as the National Assembly, which is controlled by a pro-Chavez majority, prepared to convene to choose its president and other legislative leaders.
Maduro's comments shed more light on potential scenarios. If the government succeeds in delaying the swearing-in and Chavez's condition improves, the president and his allies could have more time to plan an orderly transition and prepare for a new presidential election. If Chavez dies or is declared incapacitated, the constitution says that a new election should be called and held within 30 days.
The National Assembly president chosen on Saturday could end up being the country's interim president under some circumstances. Anyone elected by the Chavez-dominated legislature is expected to remain loyal to the president.
But Information Minister Ernesto Villegas reiterated on Saturday that Chavez is still in office, saying in comments reported by the state news agency that "Chavez has won a thousand battles and has reappeared when no one expected."
Speaking on television, Maduro held up a small blue copy of the constitution and read aloud passages as he argued that opponents were using erroneous interpretations to try to drive Chavez from power.
"They should respect our constitution," the vice president said. "The formality of his swearing-in can be resolved before the Supreme Court of Justice, at the time (the court) deems, in coordination with the head of state, Commander Hugo Chavez."
Maduro echoed other Chavez allies in suggesting the inauguration date is not a firm deadline, and that the president should be given more time to recover from his cancer surgery if needed.
"Maduro's comments are not surprising. The government holds all the cards in the current situation, particularly given the compassion for Chavez's serious illness. It has interpreted the constitution loosely, to its own political advantage," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. "In this way Maduro is able to buy some time, assert his authority and rally support within Chavismo. He puts the opposition on notice and throws it off balance."
Chavez was re-elected in October to another six-year term, and two months later announced that his pelvic cancer had returned. Chavez said before the operation that if his illness prevented him from remaining president, Maduro should be his party's candidate to replace him in a new election.
Maduro reiterated on Friday that the president is fighting a "complex" battle for his health but expressed hope that eventually, "we'll see him and we'll hear him."
"He has a right to rest and tranquility, and to recuperate," Maduro said. "The president right now is the exercising president. He has his government formed."
Maduro read a portion of the constitution detailing procedures for declaring an "absolute absence" of the president, which would trigger a new election within 30 days, and declared that "none of these grounds can be raised by the Venezuelan opposition."
The Venezuelan Constitution says the presidential oath should be taken Jan. 10 before the National Assembly. It also says that if the president is unable to be sworn in before the Assembly, he may take the oath before the Supreme Court, and some legal experts have noted that the sentence mentioning the court does not mention a date.
Others disagree. Ruben Ortiz, a lawyer and opposition supporter, argued that the inauguration date can't be postponed.
If Chavez is not in Caracas to be sworn in on Thursday, Ortiz said in a phone interview, "the president of the National Assembly should take charge." He added that "there is a formal separation between one term and the other."
Shifter said the opposition is on the defensive, with its only tactic being to insist that Jan. 10 is the established date.
"Chavez controls all the key institutions, and it's doubtful that most Venezuelans will get too upset about defying what seems a fairly minor constitutional provision," Shifter said. "Attacking the government because it has no objection to the Supreme Court swearing in Chavez after Jan. 10 is not exactly a winning political strategy for the opposition."
A delay also serves the government's purposes, Shifter said. "The government wants more time, whether to see if Chavez gets better, or to consolidate their ranks and further splinter and demoralize the opposition."
Chavez hasn't spoken publicly or been seen since his Dec. 11 operation. The government revealed this week that Chavez is fighting a severe lung infection and receiving treatment for "respiratory deficiency."
That account raised the possibility that he might be breathing with the assistance of a machine. But the government did not address that question or details of the president's treatment, and independent medical experts consulted by The Associated Press said the statements indicated a potentially dangerous turn in Chavez's condition, but said it's unclear whether he is attached to a ventilator.
Chavez has undergone four cancer-related surgeries since June 2011 for an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer. He also has undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

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News Summary: S&P 500 ends week at a 5-year high

DECEMBER JOBS: Stocks headed higher, capping a good week, after a report showed that hiring held up in December during the tense fiscal negotiations in Washington, with U.S. employers adding 155,000 jobs.
FIVE-YEAR HIGH: Stocks moved up at the end of the day pushing the Standard & Poor's to its highest close in five years.
GOOD START: Stocks got the year off to a strong start, surging after lawmakers came up with a long-awaited budget agreement. The plan wasn't perfect, but it was enough to keep stop the U.S. going over the "fiscal cliff" and, in all likelihood, another recession.

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Fed officials eye timeline for ending asset purchases

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve could halt its asset purchases this year if the economy improves and unemployment drops, two top Fed officials said on Friday, a view seconded by most economists at Wall Street's top financial institutions.
Meanwhile, another top Fed official warned the U.S. central bank's aggressive easing plan threatens the Fed's credibility.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, a voting member of the Fed's monetary policy panel this year, said a drop in the unemployment rate to 7.1 percent would probably constitute the "substantial improvement" in the labor market that the central bank seeks.
That's the bar for the Fed's policy-setting committee to halt the current round of asset purchases that it began in September.
"If the economy performs well in 2013, the Committee will be in a position to think about going on pause" with the asset buys, Bullard told CNBC TV on a sunny balcony outside of the hotel where thousands of economists were gathered for an annual conference here. "If it doesn't do very well then the balance sheet policy will probably continue into 2014."
The Fed has also promised to keep interest rates at their current near-zero level until unemployment drops to 6.5 percent, as long as inflation does not threaten to rise above 2.5 percent.
U.S. unemployment stood at 7.8 percent last month. While that is down from a year ago, monthly job gains are probably not enough to ratchet down unemployment much more.
Philadelphia Fed Bank President Charles Plosser, who expects unemployment to drop to between 6.8 percent and 7.0 percent by end-2013, said on Friday at the same conference that he hoped the Fed would stop buying bonds before the 6.5 percent threshold, implying he anticipated the asset purchases would halt this year.
Economists at nine of 16 primary dealers -- the large financial institutions that do business directly with the Fed -- said they expect the current Fed program of buying $45 billion per month of Treasuries to end in 2013. The Fed is also buying $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities each month.
Meanwhile, Fed policymakers are increasingly concerned about the impact their monthly purchases of $85-billion in longer-term bonds and mortgage securities are having on financial markets.
Minutes from their December policy meeting showed that "several" top officials expected to slow or stop the so-called quantitative easing program, dubbed QE3, "well before" the end of the year - news that surprised some on Wall Street and prompted a drop in stocks and bonds, and a rise in the dollar.
Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Fed bank, on Friday held his ground opposing QE3, arguing that continued monetary policy is not the appropriate way to tackle the problem.
"It is unlikely that the Federal Reserve can push real growth rates materially higher than they otherwise would be, on a sustained basis," Lacker, who dissented on all Fed easing moves last year, told a meeting of the Maryland Bankers Association.
"I see an increased risk, given the course the committee has set, that inflation pressures emerge and are not thwarted in a timely way," he said.
EYEING 7.1 PERCENT UNEMPLOYMENT
While Lacker is an outspoken policy hawk, Bullard is more of a centrist who is nonetheless toward the hawkish end of the spectrum of Fed policymakers. The pair were the first top central bank officials to speak publicly since the minutes were unveiled on Thursday.
Bullard said he expects unemployment to "continue to tick down through 2013," adding the Fed could ramp down the asset purchases if the jobless rate drops to 7.1 percent.
"That would be probably substantial improvement and the committee could think about removing accommodation on the balance sheet side of the policy at that point," he said.
After the December meeting, the Fed said it would continue buying bonds until the labor market outlook improves "substantially," which Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has characterized as a "sustained" decline in the unemployment rate.
With the Fed's key interest rate having remained near zero since late 2008 to encourage economic recovery from the Great Recession, the bond purchases are meant to lower longer-term rates and to encourage investment and hiring in the broader economy.
The U.S. economy expanded a respectable 3.1 percent in the third quarter on an annualized basis, but growth is believed to have slowed sharply to barely above 1.0 percent in the last three months of the year.
Government data released Friday showed the U.S. jobless rate held steady from November to December. Bullard called the December jobs number - a boost of 155,000 in new non-farm jobs - "reasonably good.
Plosser, one of the Fed's most hawkish members, said he believes the United States economy likely suffered a lasting decline in its trend potential growth rate as a result of the severe 2007-2009 U.S. recession.
"Any of you who have looked at the data of the most recent ... recession, it certainly looks like we've had a permanent shock," Charles Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, told a panel at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association. "The problem is we won't know the answer to that for many years to come."
Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen, a proponent of aggressive Fed easing, also spoke on Friday, but confined her comments to how regulators are tackling risks to financial stability.

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Wall Street cheers "cliff" deal, but only for now

NEW YORK (AP) — When lawmakers delivered a long-delayed, last-minute agreement on the budget, Wall Street celebrated. And it would be easy to think that the surge in the Dow the following day meant that investors had put their concerns about Washington's political gridlock behind them.
The Dow Jones industrial average surged on the news, but that doesn't mean the volatility is over. In fact, there could be more turmoil in the market soon because decisions on cutting the federal budget deficit have been put off until March, when the government will reach its borrowing limit. Republicans have already said they will demand cuts to spending as a condition for extending the limit.
"The uncertainty is still there, the key issues are spending cuts and entitlement reforms and, for the most part, those were not addressed," says Terry Sandven, chief equities strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. "This sets the stage for sharper rhetoric and increased market volatility as these discussions evolve."
The last time lawmakers tussled over the debt limit, the stock market plunged and the U.S. government lost its AAA debt rating. The Dow fell almost 7 percent in the two weeks before an agreement was reached Aug. 3, 2011.
Many business leaders objected to the agreement lawmakers reached late Tuesday. The Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, said that although it addressed some of the immediate negative consequences that the economy would have faced going over the "fiscal cliff," it failed to address the "serious and fundamental" reforms the economy needs. The National Retail Federation said that the deal was welcome, though it was only the first step in necessary tax reform.
Companies are likely to remain wary of investing until they get more clarity from Washington, says Joe Heider, a principal at Rehmann Financial in Cleveland, Ohio. He likens the current U.S. business climate to a sporting event where the referees tell the players to take the field before telling them that the rules of the game will only be decided on once the final whistle has been blown.
"Washington needs to get out of the way of the financial markets and American business," said Heider. "They need to create some certainty over how businesses should best deploy all the cash that they're sitting on."
And corporations are sitting on a lot of cash. Companies have been steadily building up their reserves over the last five years and are now sitting on record cash piles. By the end of the third quarter of last year, S&P 500 companies had accumulated more than $1 trillion in cash, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices.
At least for now, companies are unlikely to invest much of that money back into their businesses simply because demand just isn't strong enough, says U.S. Bank's Sandven. Instead they will spend it on acquisitions, stock buy-backs and pay higher dividends. Those are all actions that should boost stock prices in the near term, despite the ongoing uncertainty and increased volatility that will be caused by political wrangling.
Investors should take advantage of any volatility in the market created by the political wrangling to seek out stocks that have a history of growing their dividends, says Sandven. He estimates that half of the stocks in the S&P 500 have a dividend yield that is higher than the current 10-year U.S. Treasury note. The 10-year Treasury note was at 1.90 percent Friday.
He also recommends that investors buy the stocks of companies that have exposure to emerging markets that have a growing middle class and don't have the same debt issues as the U.S.
Joseph Tanious, a global markets strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds, says investors would be wise to remain calm when the negotiations in Washington around the debt ceiling start to heat up this spring.
The stock market dropped sharply in the weeks after the election Nov. 6 as investors worried that a divided government wouldn't get a deal done in time to meet a budget deadline by the end of the year, but it has rebounded since then. The S&P 500 is now 2 percent higher than it was on election day, even after falling by as much as 5 percent in the two weeks following the vote. On Friday it closed at 1,466, the highest since December 2007.
"When push came to shove, Congress did come together to reach an agreement," says Tanious. "Many people were saying you should be out of the market ... (that) markets are going to capitulate, and that didn't happen."
Stocks have rallied over the last three years as investors remain optimistic that the economy will maintain a slow, but steady, recovery from recession, as the housing market improves and as the outlook for jobs gets better.
And while investors also see the wisdom in addressing the nation's long-term debt problems, they also point out that businesses and consumers have been aggressively paying down their own debts in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. That leaves more flexibility for people and companies to shop, invest, and spend money, helping to lift the economy — and the stock market — even if Washington's political dysfunction worsens.

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Turkey: Military will keep fighting rebel Kurds

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey will press ahead with military operations against autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels even as Turkish officials hold talks with the rebels' jailed leader to end the 28-year-old conflict, officials said Friday.
Last week, the government confirmed that Turkey's intelligence agency was talking to rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan with the aim of convincing the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, to disarm. Ocalan has been serving a life sentence on a prison island off Istanbul since 1999.
Yet Turkish officials said Turkey had no intention of halting its military drive against the group, which took up arms in 1984 and is fighting for self-rule in southeast Turkey, often from bases in northern Iraq. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since then.
"Operations are continuing," Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin told the state-run Anadolu Agency in an interview. "They will continue until members of the group who bear enmity against our people are no longer in a position to attack or shed blood."
Yalcin Akdogan, chief adviser to the Turkish prime minister, wrote in the Star newspaper Friday: "There is no question of suspending or halting the fight against terrorism."
"Security policies must remain as a complementary factor (to talks)," Akdogan wrote in a column.
Akdogan also warned that groups within the PKK who are opposed to any negotiated settlement to the conflict could "sabotage" the talks by attacking Turkish targets.
Turkey has admitted holding secret discussions with Ocalan and other PKK members, as recently as 2011, although officials later said the talks were abandoned when rebels killed 13 soldiers in southeast Turkey in July of that year.
The latest peace effort comes after hundreds of Kurdish prisoners linked to the PKK heeded a call from Ocalan in November and abandoned a hunger strike pressing for greater Kurdish rights and improved prison conditions for the rebel leader. The incident demonstrated Ocalan still holds sway over the rebels even after 13 years of being in prison.
The negotiations also coincide with efforts by parties in Parliament to draft a new constitution for Turkey, which the government says would safeguard the rights of minority Kurds, who make up some 20 percent of the country's 75 million population.
Turkish officials have not revealed details of the talks with Ocalan or what Turkey is offering the rebels as an incentive to disarm.
Nurettin Canikli, a senior legislator from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party, said some progress had been made but would not say if the PKK was any closer to laying down arms.
Akdogan, the adviser, wrote that many PKK fighters were sick of life hidden away in the mountains of southeast Turkey or northern Iraq and suggested that the prospect of "coming down from the mountains" would be an incentive to disarm.

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Britain's top tabloid scolds Argentina over the Falklands

BUENOS AIRES/LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's biggest-selling newspaper had a simple message for Argentina in an editorial published on Friday in the South American country: "HANDS OFF" the Falkland Islands.
The seven-paragraph epistle, penned by the populist Sun tabloid and published in Argentina's main English language newspaper, came in response to fresh demands from President Cristina Fernandez to open talks over the sovereignty of the South Atlantic archipelago.
The two countries fought a 10-week war in 1982 over the remote islands, which are part of Britain's self-governing overseas territories and are known in Argentina as Las Malvinas.
Britain won the war but Argentina started pressing its sovereignty claim anew last year after oil exploration began in waters near the islands.
"British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands dates back to 1765, before the Republic of Argentina even existed," the Sun said in its open letter to Fernandez, published in both Spanish and English in the Buenos Aires Herald.
"In the name of our millions of readers," the Sun said, "HANDS OFF!"
The Sun, part of media mogul Rupert Murdoch's empire, has a long history of publishing fervently patriotic articles. One of its front pages during the 1982 war it marked the news that British forces had sunk the Argentine warship General Belgrano with the banner headline "GOTCHA."
As the extent of Argentine losses began to emerge, the Sun changed its headline in later editions. A total of 323 Argentines lost their lives in the attack on the Belgrano.
While the rhetoric has yet to reach such levels, tensions have flared between London and Buenos Aires against the new backdrop of oil prospects.
Crude was found to the north of the Falklands in 2010 by Rockhopper Exploration, drawing interest from hedge funds and other investors despite threats from Argentina to disrupt the activity.
In an open letter from Fernandez to Prime Minister David Cameron published in British newspapers on Thursday, the fiery two-term Peronist leader accused Britain of breaching United Nations resolutions calling for a negotiated solution.
Cameron rejects negotiations, saying the approximately 3,000 people of the Falkland Islands have chosen to be British.
In its Friday edition, the Sun used less moderate language for its own British readers than in its open letter to Fernandez, labeling her country a "banana republic."
"Stirring up trouble over the Falklands creates a convenient sideshow for Argentina's tin-pot leaders as they battle problems at home," the Sun said in its editorial, referring to economic woes in Argentina punctuated by slow growth and high inflation.
"But they are wasting their breath. And they should remember what happened last time.

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Excavators head to Myanmar to find WWII Spitfires

LONDON (AP) — An airplane-obsessed farmer, a freelance archaeologist, and a team of excavators are heading from Britain to the Myanmar city of Yangon on Saturday to find a nearly forgotten stash of British fighter planes thought to be carefully buried beneath the former capital's airfield.
The venture, backed with a million-dollar guarantee from a Belarusian videogame company, could uncover dozens of Spitfire aircraft locked underground by American engineers at the end of World War II.
"We could easily double the number of Spitfires that are still known to exist," said 63-year-old David Cundall, the farmer and private pilot who has spent nearly two decades pursuing the theory that 36 of the famous fighter planes were buried, still in excellent condition, in wooden crates in a riverbed at the end of an airport runway.
"In the Spitfire world it will be similar to finding Tutankhamen's tomb," he told reporters at a media conference held in a London airport hotel Friday.
Not everyone is as convinced. Even at the conference, freelance archaeologist Andy Brockman acknowledged that it was "entirely possible" that all the team would find was a mass of corroded metal — if it found anything at all.
But Cundall said eyewitness testimony — from British and American veterans as well as elderly local residents of Myanmar — coupled with survey data, aerial pictures, and ground radar soundings left him in no doubt that the planes were down there.

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Pakistani girl shot by Taliban leaves UK hospital

Three months after she was shot in the head for daring to say girls should be able to get an education, a 15-year-old Pakistani hugged her nurses and smiled as she walked out of a Birmingham hospital.
Malala Yousufzai waved to a guard and smiled shyly as she cautiously strode down the hospital corridor talking to nurses in images released Friday by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.
"She is quite well and happy on returning home — as we all are," Malala's father, Ziauddin, told The Associated Press.
Malala, who was released Thursday, will live with her parents and two brothers in Britain while she continues to receive treatment. She will be admitted again in the next month for another round of surgery to rebuild her skull.
Experts have been optimistic that Malala, who was airlifted from Pakistan in October to receive specialized medical care, has a good chance of recovery because the brains of teenagers are still growing and can better adapt to trauma.
"Malala is a strong young woman and has worked hard with the people caring for her to make excellent progress in her recovery," said Dr. Dave Rosser, the medical director for University Hospitals Birmingham. "Following discussions with Malala and her medical team, we decided that she would benefit from being at home with her parents and two brothers."
The Taliban targeted Malala because of her relentless objection to the group's regressive interpretation of Islam that limits girls' access to education. She was shot while returning home from school in Pakistan's scenic Swat Valley on Oct. 9.
Her case won worldwide recognition, and the teen became a symbol for the struggle for women's rights in Pakistan. In an indication of her reach, she made the shortlist for Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2012.
The militants have threatened to target Malala again because they say she promotes "Western thinking," but a security assessment in Britain concluded the risk was low in releasing her to her family. British police have provided security for her at the hospital, but West Midlands Police refused to comment on any security precautions for Malala or her family going forward.
Pakistani doctors removed a bullet that entered her head and traveled toward her spine before Malala's family decided to send her to Britain for specialized treatment. Pakistan is paying.
Pakistan also appointed Malala's father as its education attache in Birmingham for at least three years, meaning Malala is likely to remain in Britain for some time.
Hospital authorities say Malala can read and speak, but cited patient confidentiality when asked whether she is well enough to continue her education in Britain.
While little has been made public about Malala's medical condition, younger brains recover more fully from trauma because they are still growing. Dr. Anders Cohen, chief of neurosurgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York, estimated she might recover up to 85 percent of the cognitive ability she had before — more than enough to be functional.
"She'd be able to move on with life, maybe even become an activist again," said Cohen, who is not involved in Malala's treatment.
In the Swat Valley, people reacted with joy at the news of her release. Family and friends handed out sweets to neighbors in Malala's hometown of Mingora.
"Obviously we all are jubilant over her rapid recovery, and we hope that she will soon fully recover and would return back to her home town at an appropriate time," said Mahmoodul Hasan, Malala's 35-year-old cousin. Like Malala's father, he runs a private school in Mingora.
But the Swat Valley remains a tense place. Only last month, several hundred students in Mingora protested plans to have their school named after Malala, saying it would make the institution a target for the Taliban.
Malala's father vowed to return to Pakistan with his family once Malala is fully recovered.
"I thank the whole of Pakistan and all other well-wishers for praying for her and our family," he said. "What I am doing here is all temporary, and God willing we all will return to our homeland."

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