Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe" adapted for 21st century

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - In a bid to resurrect Walter Scott's historical novel "Ivanhoe", retired Scottish medical professor David Purdie unsheathed his scalpel to cut out the early 19th century verbiage and deliver a new edition for 21st century readers.

Ivanhoe is a romantic tale of fair maidens, bold knights-at-arms, merry friars, skulduggery, enmity between Saxons and Norman barons, and even a cameo appearance by Robin Hood during the reign of England's Richard I in 1194.

The first historical novel by Scott (1771-1832) set outside Scotland was hugely popular when it was published at the start of 1820. Its first printing of 10,000 copies sold out in less than two weeks and it set the scene for the rise of the historical novel in Europe.

Scott was widely read through Europe and North America.

Purdie, chairman of the Sir Walter Scott Club in Edinburgh, said the idea for his abridged Ivanhoe "came from repeated observations in the press that Scott was ‘difficult', above all, verbose...and out of touch with the attention span of a modern audience."

The punctuation style of 1820 just jarred, he said.

"I have shortened paragraphs and sentences, removed excessive commas, trimmed descriptions, especially of scenery, and adjusted syntax," Purdie told Reuters.

The new edition is published by Luath Press Limited in Edinburgh for sale at 9.99 pounds ($16.09).

Purdie, who is also editor-in-chief of the (Robert) Burns Encyclopaedia, said he had trimmed Ivanhoe to 95,000 words - about the length of a modern solid novel - from 195,000 words.

"As a former surgeon, I used the good old surgical discipline of only cutting where necessary, and then only removing extraneous matter, conserving the vital organs of the story while minimizing blood loss and keeping the patient alive," he said.

Graham Tulloch, professor of English at Australia's Flinders University in Adelaide and editor of the definitive 1998 Edinburgh Edition of Ivanhoe, told Reuters he would naturally like readers to peruse the original, but commended Purdie's efforts.

"David Purdie has gone to some trouble to make the book in size, cover, and page layout look like a modern historical novel. If this can attract more readers, then I am all in favor. If it means those readers go on to read the novel in its full version, then that is even better."

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Book Talk: "Fun" bestsellers a big switch for Justin Cronin

TOKYO (Reuters) - Justin Cronin was writing literary fiction when he and his daughter, then eight, dreamed up a vampire trilogy set in a post-apocalyptic world just for fun - until he belatedly realized what they'd put together, and sat down to write.

Cronin said he's still a little astonished by the success of "The Passage," which began the series, and now "The Twelve," which just came out last month, both of which have been bestsellers.

Cronin spoke with Reuters about the book, about writing, and what it was like to make the transition from literary fiction to genre writing.

Q: I hear the inspiration came from your daughter?

A: "The conversations that I had with my daughter were where we assembled the plot together, with only two rules, which were: everything in the story had to be interesting, and it had to have one character with red hair, because she has red hair. I think there are two things that made it work so well. One was that she's my daughter, we have a lot of chemistry, we're close. She's very smart, she's very well-read. She was eight years old at the time, but she was a kid who read a ton that early.

"The other thing that made it work well is that I had no intention of writing these books. We were just having fun. All the inner critics were silent, they had been sent out of the room. We made a great story. My intentions with this were simply to have a good time, and then I looked up and said, oh my God, look what we have. It's fantastic, I'm going to write this."

Q: Did it take a lot of time to go from having fun to actually writing it?

A: "There was almost no gap. We spent three months together doing this, always in motion. I was jogging, and she came on her bike beside me, and we spent an hour doing this. Monday through Friday, something like that. We'd pick up where we left off the day before and just keep kind of spitting it out, trying different ideas and throwing other ideas into the ditch.

"Then it got cold, it got dark early and the bicycle went into the garage. I said, this is good material, I don't know what I'm going to do with it but I should at least write it down for some future use. So I sat down at my computer and I looked up a few days later and I had 30 pages of notes, I had a really complete outline. I said wow, how often does this fall into your lap? But the book still didn't have a voice, I didn't know how it would sound. So I sat down and said look, I'm just going to write a chapter - and there was another chapter, and then another chapter. Next thing I knew I'd written 337,000 words."

Q: So, it was a gift.

A: "Yes. I don't want to say it came from above, but it felt like that."

Q: Was it all smooth sailing?

A: "Every book has got its challenges. You run into a plot point that you can't figure out, or a scene that you struggle to write and have to write 50 times. Writing is 10 percent inventiveness and creativity, and 90 percent stamina, especially for long books like these. Of course there were bumps in the road, there were days when I was frustrated, but for the most part the thing was a gas to write, and that was true for the second book as well. I hope it's true for the third."

Q: What's it like to go from literary to genre fiction?

A: "The question that I had going into this was, would I write differently, given the fact that I was going to write a book that had certain kinds of plot elements that I'd not worked with before - a lot of action sequences, things like that. And what I found very quickly was, you write how you write. I didn't end up writing differently from the way I would write anything, my interests were roughly the same. I had a very robust plot to work from, which was a gas, but I realized very quickly that I was writing about people, and the things that are important to me. Things like the bonds between parents and children - I'm a dad, so that comes up everywhere.

"What I had was a great way for exploring this stuff, because it seems true to me that people who are running for their lives can't help but be themselves. It's just a characterization tool. I found myself back in the presence of all my concerns as a man and my habits as a writer. It gave really clean lines to what I was doing."

Q: Was that kind of transition easy all the way?

A: I had to learn how to do some new stuff, basically the big action sequences. I wanted to write some scenes in which simply enormous events occur, with a lot of kinetic energy - a runaway train. In the second book, an attack on the refugee processing center where there's all these different story elements and points of view operating simultaneously, and you have to see things from several angles at once, and you have to find a rhetoric that still makes it feel like it's moving quickly. All this technical stuff. That was a real challenge, I had to sit down and really think about that one. One of the things you get to do as a writer is that you get to learn new stuff all the time, and I hope that I'm a better writer when I'm 70 than I was when I was 30. That's one of the great things about a literary career.

Q: Any advice for aspiring writers?

A: "Just like any other job, you need to show up for work. You need to read a lot, you need to be wise, you need to watch people. If you try to write 1,000 words a day, as I do, after 100 days you'll look up and have a book. It may be a mess, and you may have to revise it 50 times, but you can't revise it if you haven't written it."

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"The Racketeer" jumps to top spot on U.S. bestseller list

NEW YORK (Reuters) - John Grisham's "The Racketeer" soared to top of Publishers Weekly's bestseller list on Thursday.

The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide.

Hardcover Fiction Last Week

1. "The Racketeer" by John Grisham (Doubleday, $28.95) -

2. "The Casual Vacancy" by J. K. Rowling (Little, Brown, $35.00) 2

3. "The Panther" by Nelson DeMille (Grand Central, $27.99) 1

4. "The Bone Bed" by Patricia Cornwell (Putnam, $28.95) 3

5. "NYPD Red" by James Patterson and Marshall Karp (Little, Brown, $27.99) 5

6. "Back to Blood" by Tom Wolfe (Little, Brown, $30.00) -

7. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn (Crown, $25.00) 7

8. "Angels at the Table" by Debbie Macomber (Ballantine, $18.00) -

9. "Winter of the World" by Ken Follett (Dutton, $36.00) 6

10. "The Bridge" by Karen Kingsbury (Howard, $19.99) -

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. "Killing Kennedy" by Bill O'Reilly (Henry Holt, $28.00) 1

2. "No Easy Day" by Mark Owen (Dutton, $26.95) 2

3. "Guinness World Records 2013" (Guinness World Records) 5

4. "Rod: The Autobiography" by Rod Stewart (Crown Archetype, $27.00) -

5. "Clients First" by Joseph Callaway (John Wiley & Sons, $21.95) -

6. "Bouchon Bakery" by Thomas Keller (Artisan Publishers, $50.00) -

7. "America Again" by Stephen Colbert (Grand Central, $28.99) 3

8. "God Loves You" by David Jeremiah (FaithWords, $23.99) 7

9. "I Declare: 31 Promises to Speak" by Joel Osteen (FaithWords, $21.99) 8

10. "Who I Am: A Memoir" by Peter Townshend (Harper, $32.50) 6

Week ended October 28, 2012, powered by Nielsen BookScan (c) 2012 The Nielsen Company.

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"Argo" rises above "Cloud Atlas" as Sandy spooks

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Acclaimed Iran hostage thriller "Argo" brought home its first box-office win over a quiet weekend, leading movie charts with $12.4 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales as would-be moviegoers hunkered down for Hurricane Sandy.

The tally for "Argo," directed by and starring Ben Affleck, topped the $9.4 million for new sci-fi drama "Cloud Atlas". Halloween-themed animated film "Hotel Transylvania" scared up $9.5 million from Friday through Sunday, narrowly edging "Cloud Atlas", studio estimates showed.

After two weeks in the No. 2 spot, "Argo" moved into the lead and lifted its domestic sales to $60.8 million through three weekends.

The movie, produced by Warner Bros. and GK Films for $44 million, tells the story of a mission to rescue U.S. government employees from Iran in 1979. The film has earned Oscar buzz after stellar reviews from critics and an "A+" grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore.

Dan Fellman, president of theatrical distribution for Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, attributed the film's jump to "great word-of-mouth", which he called "the best form of advertising".

"Cloud Atlas", also from Warner Bros., fell short of industry forecasts for a $13 million debut at North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters. Fellman said the film did better in larger cities, but struggled in the South and Midwest.

The film, starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, cost $100 million to make. Many in Hollywood thought the story, based on a philosophical novel by David Mitchell, was too complex to bring to the big screen.

The nearly three-hour film with six interweaving stories divided critics, with the harshest reviewers saying it would try audiences' patience with multiple storylines and century-hopping plots. The film's stars also shift characters. Hanks, for example, is a shady doctor in the 1840s, a nuclear scientist in the 1970s and a simple valley-dweller in the distant future.

But "Cloud Atlas" also drew praise as an ambitious and well-acted epic. Sixty-one percent of reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes website recommended the film.

"Hotel Transylvania" set a record for a September film opening in North America when it opened on September 28, and has performed solidly since then.

In the family comedy, Frankenstein, the Invisible Man and other monsters gather for a party at a high-end resort operated by Dracula. Their celebration is disrupted when a boy discovers the hotel and falls in love with Dracula's daughter but must deal with her overprotective father.

The president of worldwide distribution for Sony Corp's Sony Pictures studio, Rory Bruer, wasn't entirely surprised that the weeks-old movie beat "Cloud Atlas", despite the latter movie's buzz.

"Anything at this point doesn't surprise me," Bruer said. "It's like an annuity that keeps on giving and giving."

Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst at Hollywood.com, said the Halloween weekend gave the film a boost, and is "still the number one choice for families" among the spooky seasonal films currently playing.

This weekend was fairly quiet at the box office in North America, which Dergarabedian attributed to Hurricane Sandy, a storm menacing the East Coast of the United States.

However, the new James Bond movie "Skyfall" whipped up a storm of its own overseas, taking $77.7 million in 25 countries. The latest installment of the British spy saga took the top spot in all 25 countries, broke the all-time Saturday attendance record in the United Kingdom, and was the biggest film opening there of 2012. It will open in the United States on November 9.

Rounding out the weekend's top five, low-budget horror sequel "Paranormal Activity 4" grossed $8.7 million at domestic theaters. "Silent Hill: Revelation 3D" and "Taken 2" tied for fifth place, each pulling in $8 million.

Two other new films failed to crack the top five.

New Halloween-themed comedy "Fun Size" brought in $4.1 million at domestic theaters, landing in tenth place. The $14 million production tells the story of a boy who goes missing among trick-or-treaters, sparking his teen sister's frantic search to find him before her mother comes home.

Sports drama "Chasing Mavericks" disappointed, failing to break the top ten. The movie stars Gerard Butler in the story of a surfer who tries to conquer one of the biggest waves on Earth.

"Silent Hill: Revelation 3D" was released by Open Road Films, a joint venture between theater owners Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment Inc. Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc, released "Fun Size" and "Paranormal Activity 4".

"Chasing Mavericks" was distributed by News Corp's 20th Century Fox studio. Sony Corp's movie division released "Hotel Transylvania".

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Review: 'The Impossible' overwhelms with melodrama

Based on the true story of a family swept away by the deadly 2004 tsunami that pummeled Southeast Asia, "The Impossible" is about as subtle as a wall of water.

The depiction of the natural disaster itself, which killed 230,000 people, is visceral and horrifying. Director Juan Antonio Bayona has crafted an event that's impeccable from a production standpoint with its dizzying, seemingly endless sprawl of destruction, a relentless, wet menace full of things that snap and stab and strangle. And Naomi Watts gives a vivid, deeply committed performance as the wife and mother of three young boys who finds the strength to persevere despite desolation and debilitating injuries.

But man, is this thing heavy-handed. Although "The Impossible" sucks you in at the start, it proceeds to pound you over the head after that.

Watts and Ewan McGregor co-star as Maria and Henry, a happily married British couple spending Christmas at a luxury resort in Thailand with their adorable sons, played by Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin and Oaklee Pendergast. (The real-life family whose story inspired the film was Spanish, like the director himself; changing their ethnicity and casting famous people to play them seems like a rather transparent attempt to appeal to a larger audience.)

During a quiet morning by the pool, the first massive wave comes ashore, scattering the family and thousands of strangers across the devastated landscape. "The Impossible" tracks their efforts to survive, reconnect, find medical care and get the hell out of town. Maria and eldest son Lucas have managed to stick together, as have Henry and the youngest boys, Thomas and Simon. But neither group knows that the others are alive. The sense of loneliness and fear that sets in during those first quiet moments after the mayhem has settled are eerie.

Both halves of the family trudge on, though. The near-misses at an overcrowded hospital are just too agonizing to be true, and the uplifting score swells repeatedly in overpowering fashion, urging us to feel, as if we wouldn't know how on our own. Surely, the inherent drama of this story could have stood on its own two feet.

Bayona lingers almost fetishistically on Watts' wounds — the massive gash to the back of her right leg, the slashes beneath her left breast, the cuts over both eyes — then he martyrs her as she lingers near death. Meanwhile, the countless thousands of native people suffer in a blur — literally, they're fleeting images glimpsed from the back of a rumbling pickup truck on a dirt road. Either that or they're elderly, toothless saints spouting gibberish, but they never feel like real people who've just endured the devastation of the only home they've ever known.

"The Impossible," a Summit Entertainment release, is rated PG-13 for intense, realistic disaster sequences, including disturbing injury images, and brief nudity. Running time: 107 minutes. Two stars out of four.

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Peru's capital highly vulnerable to major quake

LIMA, Peru (AP) — The earthquake all but flattened colonial Lima, the shaking so violent that people tossed to the ground couldn't get back up. Minutes later, a 50-foot (15-meter) wall of Pacific Ocean crashed into the adjacent port of Callao, killing all but 200 of its 5,000 inhabitants. Bodies washed ashore for weeks.

Plenty of earthquakes have shaken Peru's capital in the 266 years since that fateful night of Oct. 28, 1746, though none with anything near the violence.

The relatively long "seismic silence" means that Lima, set astride one of the most volatile ruptures in the Earth's crust, is increasingly at risk of being hammered by a one-two, quake-tsunami punch as calamitous as what devastated Japan last year and traumatized Santiago, Chile, and its nearby coast a year earlier, seismologists say.

Yet this city of 9 million people is sorely unprepared. Its acute vulnerability, from densely clustered, unstable housing to a dearth of first-responders, is unmatched regionally. Peru's National Civil Defense Institute forecasts up to 50,000 dead, 686,000 injured and 200,000 homes destroyed if Lima is hit by a magnitude-8.0 quake.

"In South America, it is the most at risk," said architect Jose Sato, director of the Center for Disaster Study and Prevention, or PREDES, a non-governmental group financed by the charity Oxfam that is working on reducing Lima's quake vulnerability.

Lima is home to a third of Peru's population, 70 percent of its industry, 85 percent of its financial sector, its entire central government and the bulk of international commerce.

"A quake similar to what happened in Santiago would break the country economically," said Gabriel Prado, Lima's top official for quake preparedness. That quake had a magnitude of 8.8.

Quakes are frequent in Peru, with about 170 felt by people annually, said Hernando Tavera, director of seismology at the country's Geophysical Institute. A big one is due, and the chances of it striking increase daily, he said. The same collision of tectonic plates responsible for the most powerful quake ever recorded, a magnitude-9.5 quake that hit Chile in 1960, occurs just off Lima's coast, where about 3 inches of oceanic crust slides annually beneath the continent.

A 7.5-magnitude quake in 1974 a day's drive from Lima in the Cordillera Blanca range killed about 70,000 people as landslides buried villages. Seventy-eight people died in the capital. In 2007, a 7.9-magnitude quake struck even closer, killing 596 people in the south-central coastal city of Pisco.

A shallow, direct hit is the big danger.

More than two in five Lima residents live either in rickety structures on unstable, sandy soil and wetlands that amplify a quake's destructive power or in hillside settlements that sprang up over a generation as people fled conflict and poverty in Peru's interior. Thousands are built of colonial-era adobe.

Most quake-prone countries have rigorous building codes to resist seismic events. In Chile, if engineers and builders don't adhere to them they can face prison. Not so in Peru.

"People are building with adobe just as they did in the 17th century," said Carlos Zavala, director of Lima's Japanese-Peruvian Center for Seismic Investigation and Disaster Mitigation.

Environmental and human-made perils compound the danger.

Situated in a coastal desert, Lima gets its water from a single river, the Rimac, which a landslide could easily block. That risk is compounded by a containment pond full of toxic heavy metals from an old mine that could rupture and contaminate the Rimac, said Agustin Gonzalez, a PREDES official advising Lima's government.

Most of Lima's food supply arrives via a two-lane highway that parallels the river, another potential chokepoint.

Lima's airport and seaport, the key entry points for international aid, are also vulnerable. Both are in Callao, which seismologists expect to be scoured by a 20-foot (6-meter) tsunami if a big quake is centered offshore, the most likely scenario.

Mayor Susana Villaran's administration is Lima's first to organize a quake-response and disaster mitigation plan. A February 2011 law obliged Peru's municipalities to do so. Yet Lima's remains incipient.

"How are the injured going to be attended to? What is the ability of hospitals to respond? Of basic services? Water, energy, food reserves? I don't think this is being addressed with enough responsibility," said Tavera of the Geophysical Institute.

By necessity, most injured will be treated where they fall, but Peru's police have no comprehensive first-aid training. Only Lima's 4,000 firefighters, all volunteers, have such training, as does a 1,000-officer police emergency squadron.

But because the firefighters are volunteers, a quake's timing could influence rescue efforts.

"If you go to a fire station at 10 in the morning there's hardly anyone there," said Gonzalez, who advocates a full-time professional force.

In the next two months, Lima will spend nearly $2 million on the three fire companies that cover downtown Lima, its first direct investment in firefighters in 25 years, Prado said. The national government is spending $18 million citywide for 50 new fire trucks and ambulances.

But where would the ambulances go?

A 1997 study by the Pan American Health Organization found that three of Lima's principal public hospitals would likely collapse in a major quake, but nothing has been done to reinforce them.

And there are no free beds. One public hospital, Maria Auxiliadora, serves more than 1.2 million people in Lima's south but has just 400 beds, and they are always full.

Contingency plans call for setting up mobile hospitals in tents in city parks. But Gonzalez said only about 10,000 injured could be treated.

Water is also a worry. The fire threat to Lima is severe — from refineries to densely-backed neighborhoods honeycombed with colonial-era wood and adobe. Lima's firefighters often can't get enough water pressure to douse a blaze.

"We should have places where we can store water not just to put out fires but also to distribute water to the population," said Sato, former head of the disaster mitigation department at Peru's National Engineering University.

The city's lone water-and-sewer utility can barely provide water to one-tenth of Lima in the best of times.

Another big concern: Lima has no emergency operations center and the radio networks of the police, firefighters and the Health Ministry, which runs city hospitals, use different frequencies, hindering effective communication.

Nearly half of the city's schools require a detailed evaluation to determine how to reinforce them against collapse, Sato said.

A recent media blitz, along with three nationwide quake-tsunami drills this year, helped raise consciousness. The city has spent more than $77 million for retention walls and concrete stairs to aid evacuation in hillside neighborhoods, Prado said, but much more is needed.

At the biggest risk, apart from tsunami-vulnerable Callao, are places like Nueva Rinconada.

A treeless moonscape in the southern hills, it is a haven for economic refugees who arrive daily from Peru's countryside and cobble together precarious homes on lots they scored into steep hillsides with pickaxes.

Engineers who have surveyed Nueva Rinconada call its upper reaches a death trap. Most residents understand this but say they have nowhere else to go.

Water arrives in tanker trucks at $1 per 200 liters (52 gallons) but is unsafe to drink unless boiled. There is no sanitation; people dig their own latrines. There are no streetlamps, and visibility is erased at night as Lima's bone-chilling fog settles into the hills.

Homes of wood, adobe and straw matting rest on piled-rock foundations that engineers say will crumble and rain down on people below in a major quake.

A recently built concrete retaining wall at the valley's head lies a block beneath the thin-walled wood home of Hilarion Lopez, a 55-year-old janitor and community leader. It might keep his house from sliding downhill, but boulders resting on uphill slopes could shake loose and crush him and his neighbors.

"We've made holes and poured concrete around some of the more unstable boulders," he says, squinting uphill in a strong late morning sun.

He's not so worried if a quake strikes during daylight.

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Chavez to return to Cuba for cancer surgery again

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was heading back to Cuba on Sunday for more cancer surgery after announcing that the illness returned despite two previous operations, chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Chavez acknowledged the seriousness of his health situation in a televised address Saturday night, saying for the first time that if he suffers complications Vice President Nicolas Maduro should be elected as Venezuela's leader to continue his socialist movement.

The 58-year-old president is still scheduled to be sworn in for a new six-year term Jan. 10. He has been in office for nearly 14 years, since 1999.

"There are risks. Who can deny it?" Chavez said, seated at the presidential palace beside Maduro and other aides. "In any circumstance, we should guarantee the advance of the Bolivarian Revolution."

Chavez, who won re-election on Oct. 7, said he would undergo surgery in Havana in the coming days. Lawmakers on Sunday unanimously agreed to grant him permission to leave the country for the operation. The time of his departure was uncertain.

During a televised session, opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly agreed to Chavez's request to travel to Cuba and also said that Maduro should take on his duties during his temporary absence, as the constitution specifies. Opposition lawmaker Julio Borges criticized the lack of information that has been revealed about the type and location of the cancer, saying: "Venezuela has a right to know the truth."

Throughout his treatment, Chavez has kept secret various details about his illness, including the precise location of the tumors and the type of cancer. He has said he travels to Cuba for treatment because his cancer was diagnosed by doctors there.

Some of the pro-Chavez lawmakers cried and their voices cracked with emotion as they praised him and wished him a full recovery. "Onward, commander!" they chanted in unison.

"You are invincible," said Maria Leon, a pro-Chavez congresswoman, expressing confidence he would be back for his inauguration to start a new term.

Under the Venezuelan constitution, as vice president Maduro would automatically fill in as president on a temporary basis should Chavez be unable to finish the current term concluding in early January.

But the constitution also says that if a president-elect dies before taking office, a new election should be held within 30 days. In the meantime, the president of the National Assembly is to be in charge of the government.

Several outside medical experts said that based on Chavez's account of his condition and his treatment so far, they doubt the cancer can be cured.

Chavez said he hasn't given up.

"With the grace of God, we'll come out victorious," said Chavez, who held up a crucifix and kissed it.

More than 1,000 of the president's supporters gathered Sunday in Plaza Bolivar in downtown Caracas to show solidarity, many wearing his movement's red T-shirts and chanting: "Ooh-Ah! Chavez isn't going away!"

The president, who had just returned from Cuba early Friday, said on television late Saturday that tests had found a return of "some malignant cells" in the same area where tumors were previously removed.

Chavez's quick trip home appeared aimed at sending a clear directive to his inner circle that Maduro is his chosen successor. He called for his allies to pull together, saying: "Unity, unity, unity."

He also said it's important for the military to remain united, saying: "the enemies of the country don't rest."

Chavez said his doctors had recommended he have the surgery right away, but that he had told them he wanted to return to Venezuela first.

"What I came for was this," he said, seated below a portrait of independence hero Simon Bolivar, the inspiration of his Bolivarian Revolution movement.

Chavez had named Maduro, his longtime foreign minister, as his choice for vice president three days after winning re-election. The 49-year-old Maduro, a burly former bus driver, has shown unflagging loyalty and become a leading spokesman for Venezuela's socialist leader in recent years.

Chavez said that if new elections are eventually held, his movement's candidate should be Maduro.

"In that scenario, which under the constitution would require presidential elections to be held again, you all elect Nicolas Maduro as president," Chavez said. "I ask that of you from my heart."

Chavez called him "one of the young leaders with the greatest ability to continue, if I'm unable to ... continue with his firm hand, with his gaze, with his heart of a man of the people."

Chavez was flanked by both Maduro and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, and he held a small blue copy of the constitution in his hands.

State television showed Chavez's supporters congregating in squares in various cities on Sunday, and some joined hands to pray for his health. At the gathering in downtown Caracas, some expressed optimism that Chavez would pull through it. Others said they weren't sure.

"I love Chavez, and I'm worried," said Leonardo Chirinos, a construction worker. "We don't know what's going to happen, but I trust that the revolution is going to continue on, no matter what happens."

Chavez called his relapse a "new battle." It will be his third operation to remove cancerous tissue in about a year and a half.

The president first underwent surgery for an unspecified type of pelvic cancer in Cuba in June 2011, after an operation for a pelvic abscess earlier in the month found the cancer. He had another cancer surgery last February after a tumor appeared in the same area. He has also undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Chavez had recently reduced his public appearances, and he made his most recent trip to Cuba on the night of Nov. 27, saying he would receive hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Such treatment is regularly used to help heal tissues damaged by radiation treatment.

Chavez said that while he was in Cuba tests detected the recurrence of cancer.

Dr. Julian Molina, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said that based upon the limited information Chavez has made public about his cancer it appears to be terminal.

"For a patient in similar circumstances where you have given surgery as a first line of treatment, then chemotherapy, then radiation therapy and you are still dealing with a tumor this late — that indicates that it is not a curable cancer," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Molina and other medical experts said Chavez's next surgery likely won't be high-risk.

"I think if they are planning to do any surgery it is to improve his quality of life, meaning to remove a tumor that is located in a place that is either producing some pain or some difficulty for the patient," Molina said.

He agreed with other doctors queried by the AP that Chavez may have a sarcoma, which he said tend to spread to the lungs. Based on Chavez's treatment regimen, he said, it's highly unlikely he's suffering from colon or prostate cancer, though it could be bladder cancer.

Molina said it is extremely difficult to say how long Chavez has to live. "You need to know more specifics about the case," he said.

Chavez said he wouldn't have run for re-election this year if tests at the time had shown signs of cancer. He also made his most specific comments yet about his movement carrying on without him if necessary.

"Fortunately, this revolution doesn't depend on one man," Chavez said. "Today we have a collective leadership."

Throughout his presidency, though, Chavez has been a one-man political phenomenon, and until the appointment of Maduro he hadn't spoke of any clear successor.

His announcement dramatically increased uncertainty in Venezuela about the future, and "Chavez is in the short term irreplaceable in terms of leadership and of national impact," said Luis Vicente Leon, a pollster who heads the Venezuelan firm Datanalisis.

Still, he said, Chavez's announcement could help his party's candidates rally support in upcoming state gubernatorial elections on Dec. 16. Leon also said that if Chavez's candidates have a strong showing, it could give his party an added boost to promote constitutional changes to allow Maduro to succeed Chavez without the need for a new election. Such a possibility has not been publicly raised by Chavez's political allies.

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Hugo Chavez says he needs cancer surgery again

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was heading back to Cuba on Sunday for more cancer surgery after announcing that the illness returned despite two previous operations, chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Chavez acknowledged the seriousness of his health situation in a televised address Saturday night, saying for the first time that if he suffers complications Vice President Nicolas Maduro should be elected as Venezuela's leader to continue his socialist movement.

The 58-year-old president is still scheduled to be sworn in for a new six-year term Jan. 10. He has been in office for nearly 14 years, since 1999.

"There are risks. Who can deny it?" Chavez said, seated at the presidential palace beside Maduro and other aides. "In any circumstance, we should guarantee the advance of the Bolivarian Revolution."

Chavez, who won re-election on Oct. 7, said he would undergo the operation in Havana in the coming days. Lawmakers on Sunday unanimously agreed to grant him permission to leave the country for treatment. The time of his departure was uncertain.

During a televised session, opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly said they would approve Chavez's request to travel to Cuba but wanted constitutional procedures to be strictly followed. Opposition lawmaker Julio Borges criticized the lack of information that has been revealed about the type and location of the cancer, saying: "Venezuela has a right to know the truth."

Throughout his treatment, Chavez has kept secret various details about his illness, including the precise location of the tumors and the type of cancer. He has said he travels to Cuba for treatment because his cancer was diagnosed by doctors there.

Some of the pro-Chavez lawmakers' voices cracked with emotion as they praised him and wished him a full recovery. Congresswoman Gladys Requena finished her speech shouting with emotion: "Onward, commander!"

Under the Venezuelan constitution, as vice president Maduro would automatically fill in as president on a temporary basis should Chavez be unable to finish the current term concluding in early January.

But the constitution also says that if a president-elect dies before taking office, a new election should be held within 30 days. In the meantime, the president of the National Assembly is to be in charge of the government.

Several outside medical experts said that based on Chavez's account of his condition and his treatment so far, they doubt the cancer can be cured.

Chavez said he hasn't given up.

"I hope to give you all good news in the coming days," said Chavez, who held up a crucifix and kissed it. "With the grace of God, we'll come out victorious."

More than 1,000 of the president's supporters gathered Sunday in Plaza Bolivar in downtown Caracas to show solidarity, many wearing his movement's red T-shirts and chanting: "Ooh-Ah! Chavez isn't going away!"

The president, who had just returned from Cuba early Friday, told said on television late Saturday that tests had found a return of "some malignant cells" in the same area where tumors were previously removed.

Chavez's quick trip home appeared aimed at sending a clear directive to his inner circle that Maduro is his chosen successor. He called for his allies to pull together, saying: "Unity, unity, unity."

He also said it's important for the military to remain united, saying: "the enemies of the country don't rest."

Chavez said his doctors had recommended he have the surgery right away, but that he had told them he wanted to return to Venezuela first.

"I want to go there. I need to go to Venezuela," Chavez recalled telling his doctors. "And what I came for was this," he said, seated below a portrait of independence hero Simon Bolivar, the inspiration of his Bolivarian Revolution movement.

Chavez had named Maduro, his longtime foreign minister, as his choice for vice president three days after winning re-election. The 49-year-old Maduro, a burly former bus driver, has shown unflagging loyalty and become a leading spokesman for Venezuela's socialist leader in recent years.

Chavez said that if new elections are eventually held, his movement's candidate should be Maduro.

"In that scenario, which under the constitution would require presidential elections to be held again, you all elect Nicolas Maduro as president," Chavez said. "I ask that of you from my heart."

"He's one of the young leaders with the greatest ability to continue, if I'm unable to ... continue with his firm hand, with his gaze, with his heart of a man of the people," Chavez said, also saying that Maduro's leadership and "the international recognition he has earned" make him fit to become president.

Chavez was flanked by both Maduro and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, and he held a small blue copy of the constitution in his hands.

Announcements on state television called for Chavez's supporters to gather in city plazas throughout the country on Sunday. At a plaza in downtown Caracas, some expressed optimism that Chavez would pull through it. Others said they weren't sure.

"I love Chavez, and I'm worried," said Leonardo Chirinos, a construction worker. "We don't know what's going to happen, but I trust that the revolution is going to continue on, no matter what happens."

Chavez called his relapse a "new battle." It will be his third operation to remove cancerous tissue in about a year and a half.

The president first underwent surgery for an unspecified type of pelvic cancer in Cuba in June 2011, after an operation for a pelvic abscess earlier in the month found the cancer. He had another cancer surgery last February after a tumor appeared in the same area. He has also undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Chavez said tests immediately after his re-election win had shown no sign of cancer. But he said he had swelling and pain, which he thought was due to "the effort of the campaign and the radiation therapy treatment."

"It's a very sensitive area, so we started to pay a lot of attention to that," he said, adding that he had reduced his public appearances.

Chavez made his most recent trip to Cuba on the night of Nov. 27, saying he would receive hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Such treatment is regularly used to help heal tissues damaged by radiation treatment.

Chavez said that while he was in Cuba tests detected the recurrence of cancer.

Dr. Carlos Castro, scientific director of the League Against Cancer in neighboring Colombia, told The Associated Press that he expects the operation will likely be followed by more chemotherapy.

"It's behaving like a sarcoma, and sarcoma doesn't forgive," Castro said, adding that he wouldn't be surprised if the cancer had also spread to the lungs or other areas.

"We knew this was going to happen," he said. "This isn't good."

Dr. Julian Molina, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center in Rochester, Minnesota, said that while he doesn't have specifics of Chavez's case, "surgery under these circumstances is usually indicated to control a tumor that is growing locally and producing pain."

Having surgery "at this point is likely with the intent of improving the quality of life of the patient and not with a curative intent," Molina said.

Given what Chavez has said about his cancer, it is most likely a soft-tissue sarcoma, said Dr. Michael Pishvaian, an oncologist at Georgetown University's Lombardi Cancer Center in Washington. He said those in the pelvis area have a likelihood of recurring of 50 percent to 70 percent, even with the best treatment.

"I think this is recurrent cancer that at this point is almost certainly not going to go away," Pishvaian said. "It's unlikely that what he's going through now is curable."

Chavez said he wouldn't have run for re-election this year if tests at the time had shown signs of cancer. He also made his most specific comments yet about his movement carrying on without him if necessary.

"Fortunately, this revolution doesn't depend on one man. We've passed through periods and today we have a collective leadership," Chavez said.

Chavez also recalled a conversation with his mentor Fidel Castro in Havana before his brief trip home to Caracas, in which the Cuban leader referred to a "flame" in Latin America and Chavez's socialist movement.

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Snapshot: Chavez's designated successor

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The man President Hugo Chavez wants to succeed him is an intensely loyal 50-year-old former bus driver who has long served as the international face of Venezuela whenever the socialist president wasn't soaking up the limelight himself.

NICOLAS MADURO had been foreign minister since 2006. Chavez then tapped him as his vice president three days after winning re-election on Oct. 7

If the cancer-stricken Chavez survives until his Jan. 10 inauguration but dies during the first four years of his term, the constitution says that Maduro would take over temporarily and that new elections should be held within 30 days.

Chavez told Venezuelans on Saturday night if he isn't able to stay on he wants them to elect Maduro as his successor.

TOP DIPLOMAT: Maduro has been a key player in consolidating the ALBA bloc of leftist Latin American nations including Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and others, and in building closer ties with Iran, Russia and China in an effort to counteract U.S. influence. He is thought to have close ties to Cuba's former and current leaders Fidel and Raul Castro.

Chavez has always shown great affection for Maduro, kidding him publicly about the submarine sandwiches the burly foreign minister consumes. The two have been friends since the 1980s, when Chavez formed a clandestine movement that eventually launched a failed 1992 coup.

EARLY YEARS, UNION ORGANIZING: For a diplomat, Maduro is a man of surprisingly few words. Yet he is also one of the few members of Chavez's government who makes public statements on policy.

He got into politics as a teenager, joining the Socialist League, which sent him to Cuba for training in union organizing. He then became a union organizer in the Caracas Metro system.

During Chavez's visits to Cuba for cancer treatment, the mustachioed Maduro was among the few aides at his side.

When Chavez announced Saturday night that he would be returning to Cuba for cancer surgery, Maduro was sitting beside him. The vice president looked solemn and turned to Chavez with slight wrinkles on his brow when the president mentioned his name.

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Chavez faces new cancer battle, surgery in Cuba

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was heading back to Cuba on Sunday for a third cancer surgery after naming his vice president as his choice to lead the country if the illness cuts short his presidency.

Chavez's announcement on Saturday night unleashed new uncertainty about the country's future, and his supporters poured into city plazas across the nation to pray for his recovery from what appears to be an aggressive type of cancer.

Some wiped tears, while others held photos of him and chanted in unison: "Ooh-Ah! Chavez isn't going away!"

Chavez acknowledged the seriousness of his health situation in a televised address, saying for the first time that if he suffers complications Vice President Nicolas Maduro should be elected as Venezuela's leader to continue his socialist movement.

Several outside medical experts said that based on Chavez's account of his condition and his treatment so far, they doubt the cancer can be cured.

Chavez said he hasn't given up.

"With the grace of God, we'll come out victorious," said Chavez, who held up a crucifix and kissed it during his Saturday night appearance.

The 58-year-old president is still scheduled to be sworn in for a new six-year term Jan. 10. He has been in office for nearly 14 years, since 1999.

"There are risks. Who can deny it?" Chavez said, seated at the presidential palace beside Maduro and other aides. "In any circumstance, we should guarantee the advance of the Bolivarian Revolution."

Chavez, who won re-election on Oct. 7, said he would undergo surgery in Havana in the coming days. Lawmakers on Sunday voted unanimously to grant him permission to leave the country for the operation.

During the session at the National Assembly, opposition lawmakers agreed to Chavez's request and also said that Maduro should take on his duties during his temporary absence, as the constitution specifies. Opposition lawmaker Julio Borges criticized the incomplete information that has been released about Chavez's cancer, saying: "Venezuela has a right to know the truth."

Throughout his treatment, Chavez has kept secret various details about his illness, including the precise location of the tumors and the type of cancer. He has said he travels to Cuba for treatment because his cancer was diagnosed by doctors there.

National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello said there are no plans at this time for Chavez to cede power, even temporarily, as president.

"He's not asking for permission to leave his duties," Cabello said. "The chief of this revolution is Hugo Chavez."

Cabello chided opposition politicians for questioning how forthcoming Chavez has been about his illness, likening them to "Komodo dragons."

Some of the pro-Chavez lawmakers cried and their voices cracked with emotion as they praised him and wished him a full recovery. They chanted, "Onward, commander!"

Under the Venezuelan constitution, as vice president Maduro would automatically fill in as president on a temporary basis should Chavez be unable to finish the current term concluding in early January.

But the constitution also says that if a president-elect dies before taking office, a new election should be held within 30 days. In the meantime, the president of the National Assembly is to be in charge of the government.

More than 1,000 of Chavez's supporters gathered on Sunday in Plaza Bolivar in Caracas to show solidarity, many wearing his movement's red T-shirts while a marching band played.

The president, who had just returned from Cuba early Friday, said on television Saturday that tests had found a return of "some malignant cells" in the same area where tumors were previously removed.

Chavez's quick trip home appeared aimed at sending a clear directive to his inner circle that Maduro is his chosen successor. He also called for his allies to pull together and said it's important for the military to remain united, too.

"The enemies of the country don't rest," he said, without elaborating.

Chavez said his doctors had recommended he have the surgery right away, but that he had told them he wanted to return to Venezuela first.

"What I came for was this," he said, seated below a portrait of independence hero Simon Bolivar, the inspiration of his Bolivarian Revolution movement.

Chavez had named Maduro, his longtime foreign minister, as his choice for vice president three days after winning re-election. The 50-year-old Maduro, a burly former bus driver, has shown unflagging loyalty and become a leading spokesman for the socialist leader.

Chavez said that if new elections are eventually held, his movement's candidate should be Maduro.

"In that scenario, which under the constitution would require presidential elections to be held again, you all elect Nicolas Maduro as president," Chavez said. "I ask that of you from my heart."

Chavez called him "one of the young leaders with the greatest ability to continue, if I'm unable to ... continue with his firm hand, with his gaze, with his heart of a man of the people."

Chavez was flanked by Maduro and Cabello, and he held a small blue copy of the constitution in his hands. Concluding his talk, Chavez called for his aides to bring out a sword that once belonged to Bolivar, and showed it to Maduro.

"Before that sword we swear... we will be paying close attention, and I ask for all the support, all the support of the nation," Chavez said.

State television showed Chavez's supporters congregating in city squares on Sunday and joining hands to pray for his health. In downtown Caracas, some expressed optimism that Chavez would pull through it. Others said they weren't sure.

"I love Chavez, and I'm worried," said Leonardo Chirinos, a construction worker. "We don't know what's going to happen, but I trust that the revolution is going to continue on, no matter what happens."

Chavez called his relapse a "new battle." It will be his third operation to remove cancerous tissue in about a year and a half.

The president underwent surgery for an unspecified type of pelvic cancer in Cuba in June 2011, after an earlier operation for a pelvic abscess. He had another cancer surgery last February after a tumor appeared in the same area. He has also undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Chavez said in July that tests showed he was cancer-free. But he had recently reduced his public appearances, and he made his most recent trip to Cuba on Nov. 27, saying he would receive hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Such treatment is regularly used to help heal tissues damaged by radiation treatment.

Chavez said that while in Cuba tests detected the recurrence of cancer.

Dr. Julian Molina, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said that based upon the limited information Chavez has made public about his cancer it appears to be terminal.

"For a patient in similar circumstances where you have given surgery as a first line of treatment, then chemotherapy, then radiation therapy and you are still dealing with a tumor this late — that indicates that it is not a curable cancer," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Molina and other medical experts said Chavez's next surgery likely won't be high-risk.

"I think if they are planning to do any surgery it is to improve his quality of life, meaning to remove a tumor that is located in a place that is either producing some pain or some difficulty for the patient," Molina said.

He agreed with other doctors queried by the AP that Chavez could have a sarcoma, which he said tend to spread to the lungs. Based on Chavez's treatment regimen, he said, it's highly unlikely he's suffering from colon or prostate cancer, though it could also be bladder cancer.

Molina said it is extremely difficult to say how long Chavez has to live. "You need to know more specifics about the case," he said.

Chavez said he wouldn't have run for re-election this year if tests at the time had shown signs of cancer. He also made his most specific comments yet about his movement carrying on without him if necessary.

"Fortunately, this revolution doesn't depend on one man," Chavez said. "Today we have a collective leadership."

Throughout his presidency, though, Chavez has been a one-man political phenomenon, and until the appointment of Maduro he hadn't designated any clear successor.

"Chavez is in the short term irreplaceable in terms of leadership and of national impact," said Luis Vicente Leon, a pollster who heads the Venezuelan firm Datanalisis.

Still, he said, Chavez's announcement could help his party's candidates rally support in upcoming state gubernatorial elections on Dec. 16. Leon also said that if Chavez's candidates have a strong showing, it could give his party an added boost to promote constitutional changes to allow Maduro to succeed Chavez without the need for a new election. Such a possibility has not been publicly raised by Chavez's political allies.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who was defeated in the presidential vote, wished Chavez a speedy recovery.

He also bristled at the idea of Maduro being a designated political heir, saying: "When a person leaves his position the public has the last word, because we're in Venezuela and not Cuba."

"Here you can't talk about successors," Capriles said.

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