VENEZUELANS SWEAR ‘ABSOLUTE LOYALTY’ TO CHAVEZ
CARACAS: Thousands of Venezuelans fervently swore “absolute loyalty” to Hugo Chavez on Thursday (Friday in Manila) in a giant rally for the cancer-stricken president on what was to have

been his inauguration. Vice President Nicolas Maduro led the crowd in the oath, which was repeated by roaring supporters of the absent leader, who packed central Caracas in a massive show of support at time of deep uncertainty over the country’s future. The collective oath was taken at the end of a speech by Maduro that lavished praise on Chavez and his socialist revolution, and accused the opposition of harboring desires for a coup.

S. KOREA INSTALLS ANTI-SUICIDE SYSTEM ON CITY BRIDGES
SEOUL: The South Korean capital Seoul has installed anti-suicide monitoring devices on bridges over the city’s Han river after 196 people jumped to their deaths last year, officials said. The new initiative—in a country with the highest suicide rate among leading developed nations—incorporates closed-circuit television cameras programmed to recognize motions that suggest somebody might be preparing to jump from a bridge. Detection of a potential suicide sounds an automatic alarm which would result in emergency services and counselors being dispatched to the location in three minutes.

PASSENGERS AMAZED AS AUSTRALIAN SNAKE CLINGS TO PLANE
SYDNEY: It was not quite a “Snakes on a Plane” scenario, but passengers on a Qantas jet watched in amazement as a three-meter python clung to the outside of their aircraft during a flight. The Australian carrier said the flight from the Queensland city of Cairns to Port Moresby, capital of the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea, took off early Thursday morning with the unintended passenger tucked into its wing. Once they spotted it on the wing, passengers watched as the reptile engaged in a life-and-death struggle to maintain its grip on the plane despite the winds and chilly altitude temperatures for the two-hour journey.
AFP