Opponents of President Hugo Chavez celebrated a major victory in their presidential recall campaign after the Supreme Court ruled that signatures on petitions seeking a vote were valid unless citizens disclaim them
Hundreds took the streets in Venezuela's capital on Monday evening after the court ordered the National Elections Council to reverse its decision rejecting hundreds of thousands of signatures and requiring more than 1 million others to come forward to confirm they signed.
Chavez's government immediately appealed Monday's court decision, said Freddy Bernal, a key member of the president's ruling party. Party leaders urged government supporters to gather outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday to demand that the constitutional chamber overturn the decision.
Opposition leaders, who accuse Chavez of becoming increasingly autocratic, needed 2.4 million signatures to force a recall vote.
They submitted more than 3 million signatures to the council in December following a petition drive.
The elections council decided two weeks ago that only 1.8 million of the signatures were valid, rejecting almost 400,000 outright and ordering 1.1 million citizens to confirm that they signed -- more than 870,000 of them because they allegedly violated procedural rules when completing petition forms.
The Supreme Court ruled that the 870,000 signatures should be deemed valid unless citizens come forward to disclaim them.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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