In brief: Chavez to return to Cuba clinic

Caracas, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced Friday that he will return to Cuba to begin a new phase of cancer treatment that will include chemotherapy.

Chavez said he was seeking legislative approval to go back to Havana today “to begin what we’ve called the second phase.”

He said he was sending a letter to the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Fernando Soto Rojas, to request immediate “legislative authorization” for his trip as required by the constitution. It was not clear how long Chavez planned to remain in Cuba.

The 56-year-old’s cancer diagnosis has thrown uncertainty into Venezuela’s political landscape during the past two weeks.

Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to remove a cancerous tumor from his pelvic region. He has said the tumor was the size of a baseball, but has not specified where it was located.

He acknowledged on Wednesday for the first time that he expected to undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

21 killed in Syrians’ largest protests

Beirut – Hundreds of thousands of Syrians mounted the largest protests Friday since the uprising began more than four months ago, pouring into areas where the government crackdown has been most intense in a sign that security forces cannot break the revolt.

Syrian authorities fired on the crowds, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 100, activists said.

In a significant show of the uprising’s strength, thousands turned out in the capital, Damascus, which had seen only scattered protests. Until now, much of the dissent against President Bashar Assad has been in impoverished, remote areas.

“This is the heart of the regime,” said David Schenker, director of the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “So I think if these protests (in Damascus) continue and gain strength, it will be the beginning of the end of the regime.”

Friday’s protests stretched from Damascus and its suburbs to Hasakeh and Idlib provinces in the north, Daraa in the south and Latakia on the coast. Thousands converged on the flashpoint cities of Homs and Hama in central Syria.

Italy approves $99 billion budget plan

Rome – Italy cleared a $99 billion austerity package on Friday to reassure nervous investors that the eurozone’s third-largest economy will not succumb to the debt crisis.

Berlusconi’s government fast-tracked approval of the package measures and increased their scope after markets plummeted this week on worries over the country’s financial stability.

Italy’s future is crucial to Europe’s hopes of surviving the debt crisis because the country would be far too expensive to bail out.

The lower house of parliament passed the austerity measures by a vote of 314-280, hours after Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s government survived a confidence vote. The package was approved by the Senate on Thursday.