World in brief: Thousands protest constitutional plan

Thousands of Venezuelans on Saturday protested proposed constitutional changes that would allow President Hugo Chavez to run for re-election indefinitely and give him the power to create provinces governed by federally appointed officials.

Waving Venezuelan flags, government opponents jammed a downtown Caracas avenue where opposition leaders warned that 69 amendments approved by the National Assembly would severely weaken democracy and violate civil liberties.

To take effect, the amendments must be approved by voters in a Dec. 2 referendum. Lawmakers approved the changes Friday, and most supporters of the president support the measures.

The amendments would give the government complete control over the Central Bank, create new types of cooperative property, allow authorities to detain citizens without charge and censor the media during a state of emergency. They also would abolish presidential term limits, allowing Chavez to run again in 2012.

MOUNT KELUD, Indonesia

Villagers refuse to leave volcano

More than 25,000 villagers were refusing to leave their homes on the slopes of a Indonesian volcano today despite warnings by scientists the peak was poised for a powerful eruption, officials said.

Kelud – one of more than 100 active volcanos in Indonesia – has been on the highest alert level for more than two weeks. On Saturday, a spike in activity led scientists to declare – wrongly – that an eruption had begun.

The news led scores of people to descend from the mountain in police trucks and on bicycles and motorcycles.

Despite the exodus, officials said only some 12,000 out of about 38,000 people living within six miles of the peak had moved into tent camps or government buildings a safe distance from the volcano.

N’DJAMENA, Chad

French charity faces investigation

The French prime minister on Saturday ordered an investigation into a French charity accused of kidnapping 103 African children from Chad. Seven suspects in the case appeared at a pretrial hearing in Chad’s capital.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon asked for an investigation, to be led by the Defense and Foreign ministries, that will examine how the group was able to work in Chad without the knowledge of the French Embassy in N’Djamena, a statement from the prime minister’s office said. A report is expected within a month.

The charity Zoe’s Ark was stopped last week from flying children from eastern Chad to Europe, where the group said it intended to place them with host families.

France’s Foreign Ministry and others have cast doubt on the claims that the children were in fact orphans and that they came from Sudan’s western Darfur region.