Defense: Public misinformed in alleged terror case

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The defense attorney for a man arrested in what the FBI has called a thwarted terror plot in western Minnesota said Wednesday that authorities have given the public some misinformation about his client, while a local police chief said authorities continue to keep an eye on the anti-government militia group founded by his family.

Buford Rogers, 24, of Montevideo appeared in U.S. District Court in St. Paul for a scheduled detention hearing Wednesday. But his attorney, Assistant Federal Defender Andrew Mohring, asked that the hearing be postponed so he could investigate the accusations.

Rogers is charged with one count of illegally possessing a firearm. He was arrested Friday after FBI agents from the domestic terrorism squad said they found a cache of explosives and weapons in his parents' mobile home in Montevideo.

The FBI said earlier this week that it stopped a terror attack that was in its planning stages, potentially saving the lives of several Montevideo residents.

"There has been a great deal of information and misinformation that has been released, and it should never have happened, and it should stop," Mohring said in court Wednesday. When asked after the hearing to elaborate on what the misinformation might be, he said rules prevented him from talking about the case.

An FBI spokesman and the Montevideo police chief declined to respond to Mohring's statement.

Rogers' father, Jeff Rogers, has said his son has done nothing wrong, and is being targeted because he is outspoken about his beliefs.

Rogers has not been charged with terror-related counts, and the motive behind the alleged plot and the potential target have not been publicly released. Police say he has militia ties, and he has made anti-government comments on social media.

Montevideo Police Chief Adam Christopher said Rogers and his family started a local anti-government militia group called the Black Snake Militia, which consists of family members and a few friends. Police believe the group is small, with a maximum of about six members.

Christopher said Rogers family members have been public about their anti-government beliefs: They regularly wear camouflage, have flown a flag upside-down at the mobile home as a sign of "distress," and a homemade sign reading B.S.M., for Black Snake Militia, sits near the door.

Examples of comments he posted to his Facebook page in 2011 say: "The war is here tsa agents are doing random cheeks and shooting people for no reson," or "together we can fight back they wont take me down with out a fight i hope that you wont go down easy eather."

Rogers' page features a military vehicle as his profile picture, and other pictures of him with weapons.

"I don't think they are hiding anything," Christopher said of the group. When asked if the Black Snake Militia is focused on any one issue within government, Christopher said the group seems to direct their sentiments toward all facets of government — from the United Nations, to FEMA, to the TSA.

Christopher said authorities have been looking into the group for the last couple of years, and they continue to keep an eye on them. He said until the events leading to the recent discovery of explosives, he's unaware of any prior threats the group has made.

According to a federal affidavit, authorities searched the mobile home in Montevideo and discovered Molotov cocktails, suspected pipe bombs and firearms. The affidavit said Buford was there at the time, and one firearm recovered from the residence was a Romanian AKM assault rifle.

In an interview with authorities, Rogers admitted firing the weapon on two separate occasions at a gun range, the affidavit said. Rogers has a 2011 conviction for felony burglary and is not allowed to have a firearm.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Kovats was not opposed to postponing Rogers' detention hearing, and said in court that his office is aware of, and abiding by, rules prohibiting pretrial release of information.

U.S. Magistrate Jeanne Graham postponed the hearing, and said if a motion for a gag order was brought before her, she would consider it.

Rogers will remain in custody until the formal detention hearing. A status conference to see if it needs to be postponed further will be held May 17. He also waived his right to a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, and Graham found there was probable cause for the case to go forward.

Montevideo, a city of about 5,000 people, is about 130 miles west of Minneapolis.

___

Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti

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Hillary Clinton Shares Stage With Joe Biden in One of First Public Events Since Leaving State

Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton

WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton stepped out of the shadows tonight at an award ceremony held to recognize leaders from around the world who worked to improve the plight of women and featuring such guests as Nicholas Kristof and Vice President Joe Biden.

The event, Vital Voices' Global Leadership Awards, was the former secretary of state's second public appearances since she left her post at the end of January.

Clinton founded the original Vital Voices Democracy Initiative as first lady in 1997 with then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and has attended 11 of 12 such award ceremonies - every year except 2012 when she was traveling.

She reflected on her time as first lady, fighting for women's rights with former Chief of Staff Melanne Verveer by her side against problems that are far from over. She said today a map of the world shows "too many countries where women still face violence and abuse, too many political systems that treat women like second class or even worse.

"But that's not all the map shows. It's not what Melanne and I see," Clinton said. "When we look at the map we do see progress, because we know people who are making that progress against the most extraordinary odds every day, everywhere. We see the opportunities that are there to be seized. We see, we hear those vital voices."

Though some have speculated the high-profile Democrat could go head-to-head with Biden in a future primary election, Clinton said she was "delighted" that the vice president could be at the ceremony this year.

"Vice President Biden and I have worked together on so many important issues," she said. "One that is particularly close to his heart is the fight against domestic violence, and I know what a personal victory it was for him to see the Violence Against Women Act reauthorized last month."

Biden presented an award to the event's only male honorees, three brothers who run an NGO standing up for victims of human trafficking in India.

Before introducing the Kant brothers - Ravi, Nishi and Rishi - Biden declared that the U.S. government has an obligation to stand up for equal rights for women around the globe.

"In the end we know this is more than just policies and legislation," the vice president said. "We have to change fundamental norms and we have to let women around the world know that they aren't standing alone, that they don't have to accept their circumstances, because we won't accept it either."

Biden denounced practices like forced child marriage and sexual violence that occur around the world, calling them "barbaric." In Egypt, he said, we have a responsibility to support efforts to stop mistreatment of women.

"In each of these cases we have an obligation to act not just because we have a moral obligation, which should be self-evident to every human being, but because it's in all of our interests," Biden said. "Because again to quote my little sister, 'Peace, justice and equality can never be achieved when we use only half the brain power in the world.'"

Though neither Biden nor Clinton dropped any hints about future ambitions, a group of about 30 people gathered outside the Kennedy Center to urge Clinton to run for president in 2016.

The supporters and former campaign volunteers held signs imprinted with "Ready for Hillary," and some homemade signs reading things like "Power to the Pantsuit 2016," and "Hell Yea Hillary." They waved and shouted "2016 Hillary" as cars honked pulling into the Clinton event at the Kennedy Center this evening.

"It's going to happen, it's going to happen," Ray Anderson of Arlington, Va., said, "I think she'll run - she's got to save the country, right?"

The rally was organized by Ready for Hillary, a super PAC that launched recently and declared itself set to go should Clinton decide to run in the 2016 presidential campaign. Word was put out on local college campuses, Facebook as well as the super Pac's new website.

Supporters said they came out tonight to give Clinton the "little extra push" as she is making her decision whether to run.

"I am 99 percent sure, but that's why we're here - to make it 100 percent," McKayla Masen of Massachusetts answered, when asked whether she thinks Clinton will throw her hat into the ring. "It lets her know that people are supporting her."

Supporters out tonight predicted that if Clinton runs, in their opinion, she will win the White House.

"She's unbeatable," Jazmin Gargoum of D.C. declared.

Allida Black, chair of Ready for Hillary, is a professor at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs and a long-time Hillary supporter. She said she believes "very, very strongly" that if ("when," according to Black) Clinton jumps in the ring, it is her job to have a base of eager supporters ready and waiting.

"Hillary is such a leader. I mean it's in her DNA she can't get rid of it," Black said. "The issues of my lifetime are the issues that she has spent her lifetime addressing, and one of the things that those of us who formed this organization believe is that she has the stamina, the wisdom, the shrewdness, the toughness and the hugest heart that this job requires."

Clinton's next speaking engagement is just days away. On Friday she is scheduled to address the Daily Beast's Women in the World Summit in New York.

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On Gay Marriage, Public Leads Elected Leaders

ANALYSIS By RICK KLEIN @rickklein

In the fast-moving politics of gay marriage, the nation's political class is trailing the public - and it's getting hard to keep up.

Karl Rove is just the latest major political figure to recognize that fact. On ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" today, Rove said he could see a Republican candidate coming out in favor of gay marriage in the next presidential election.

Read more of what Rove said on 'This Week.'

That's not the same as saying the GOP nominee will definitely support gay marriage. But the fact that this would be a plausible position inside the Republican Party in time for 2016 is a stunning turnabout. Barely eight years ago, Rove engineered a reelection campaign that took advantage of a wave of state efforts to move in the other direction, by banning gay marriage.

President Obama and his major rivals, of course, all opposed gay marriage back in 2008. The president's public disavowal of that position is less than a year old, and Hillary Rodham Clinton - a very early 2016 Democratic frontrunner - only officially backed gay marriage last week.

Politicians in both parties are following a tectonic shift in public opinion surrounding gay marriage. In 2004, only 32 percent of voters thought gay marriage should be legal, in ABC News/Washington Post polling.

This month, the same poll had support jumping to 58 percent - a clear majority, powered by growing support across demographic groups. It's not yet the mainstream position inside the Republican Party, but that's the trend line Rove and others are reading.

Read more of the ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Watch my take on ABC's "World News":

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Obama appeal to Israeli public means risk

JERUSALEM (AP) — In a landmark speech to young Israelis this week, the visiting U.S. President Barack Obama delivered an unorthodox appeal couched behind warm words of affinity for their country: Urge your leaders to change their ways and take bold new steps to reach peace with the Palestinians.

The message, potentially risking the ire of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, marked a gamble by the U.S. leader as he searches for ways to restart long-stalled Mideast peace efforts. With no breakthroughs coming out of the visit on the Palestinian front, Obama must now hope that the power of the presidency, combined with the goodwill he accumulated during the 48-hour visit, can persuade a still-skeptical Israeli leadership to abandon some deeply entrenched views and get negotiations moving again.

After a first term plagued by repeated run-ins with Netanyahu and perceptions among Israelis that he was cool to their cause and perhaps even hostile to their prime minister, Obama certainly succeeded in his goal of resetting the relationship. He was treated like a rock star in meetings with Israeli leaders and everyday people, and his every moment was followed by a fawning Israeli media.

"Israel is in Love," Yediot Ahronot, Israel's largest daily, wrote in a headline Friday.

Obama and Netanyahu, who have appeared uncomfortable together in the past, smiled, joked and exchanged pleasant small talk throughout the visit, with much of the conversation caught on live microphones permitted to join them. Netanyahu seemed almost giddy at times.

But hidden behind the public displays of affection, Obama delivered a powerful message. In the keynote address to Israeli young adults, he implored the gathering to press their leaders to take risks for peace.

He also had some tough words for his audience, criticizing Israeli settlements as "counterproductive" and speaking movingly of Palestinians suffering under Israeli military occupation.

"Let me say this as a politician. I can promise you this. Political leaders will never take risks if the people do not push them to take some risks," he said. "Ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things."

While addressed at the Israeli public, the nationally broadcast speech was also aimed at Netanyahu. On the most public of stages, Obama embraced the key argument of Israel's left wing: that the status quo, in which Israel controls millions of disenfranchised Palestinians, is unsustainable and that making concessions for peace is good not only for the Palestinians, but vitally needed for Israel itself to be able to survive.

Obama's speech, even the lines most critical of Israel, was repeatedly interrupted by applause from the preselected audience largely comprised of university students. Perhaps the loudest ovation came when he called for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

"The speech gave young people a new spirit to push for a two-state solution," said Isaac Shickman, a 24-year-old Jerusalem university student who was in the audience. "It made me think of what I can do to promote peace and change in the country and the region."

Handled improperly, Obama's gambit might have backfired. Early on in his presidency, Obama's public criticism of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem raised tensions with Israel and contributed to more than four years of deadlock in peace efforts.

The Palestinians claim both areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, for their future state and have refused to negotiate while Israel continues to expand its settlements there.

Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University, said Thursday's speech came straight out of Obama's playbook back home.

"This was President Obama using some of the tactics that he uses here, meaning trying to speak directly to the people to pressure the leaders to do something, rather than focusing on the leaders themselves," he said.

He said the tactic risked antagonizing Netanyahu, but that Obama deftly handled the visit. Obama's warm words for Israel, his repeated pledges to Israeli security, a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and the many joint interests of the two countries all helped blunt potential criticism.

"It's a successful speech, but it's a far cry from solving the problem," he said.

In a statement, Netanyahu's office said he "shares President Obama's view regarding the need to advance a peace that ensures the security of Israel's citizens." It would not comment on Obama's appeals to the public.

Israelis themselves were divided over the significance of the speech.

"It was a seminal speech, even an historic one," wrote Shalom Yerushalmi, a commentator in the Maariv daily. "Will it work? Who knows?"

Tzipi Livni, the leader of a small dovish political party who is Netanyahu's new chief negotiator, said she hoped Obama's message would rally more Israelis to the country's peace camp.

"I would be very happy if Israeli citizens who heard him were convinced that this is what needs to be done," she said.

But Naftali Bennett, a Cabinet minister who leads a pro-settler party, rejected the speech. "A Palestinian state is not the right way," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Such divisions in the Cabinet are a key reason why it seems unlikely that Netanyahu will make any bold new concessions to restart talks. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected back in Israel on Saturday night to discuss the matter.

During the trip, Obama also had some tough words for the Palestinians. While criticizing Jewish settlements, Obama told the Palestinians to stop using the issue as an "excuse" to do nothing and stressed that disagreements can be resolved only through negotiations.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, said she found Obama's visit disappointing, but not surprising.

"I think the purpose of the visit, clearly, was to show support and identification with Israel," she said.

"The question has to be answered by the Americans, and the international community. How are they going to proceed from here?" she said. "It's not enough to say Kerry will be here frequently."

American presidents have a long history of using their position to cajole foreign audiences.

"I think presidents rightly see it as part of their duty," said political historian Evan Cornog, dean of the School of Communication at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. "The U.S. is a nation of ideas."

In 1963, John F. Kennedy paid a historic visit to a divided Berlin to show solidarity with the people of West Germany. A quarter of a century later, Ronald Reagan famously urged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin Wall.

More recently, George W. Bush spoke of spreading democracy in the Middle East and turning Iraq into a model democracy. Early in his term, Obama traveled to Cairo in hopes of ushering in a new era of relations with the Muslim world.

Historians have debated whether these speeches led to changes, such as the collapse of communism or the rise of the Arab Spring, or whether they were simply signs of the times.

Cornog said assessing the impact of a president's words is hard to quantify but that Obama's appeal could play a role in swaying Israeli public opinion, particularly by bolstering the Israeli left.

"I certainly think the bully pulpit, that ability of the president to have an audience and to put forth arguments, it does mean something," he said.

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Egypt vigilantes hang 2 thieves by feet in public

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian vigilantes beat two men accused of stealing a motorized rickshaw on Sunday and then hung them by their feet while some in a watching crowd chanted "kill them!" Both men died, security officials said.

The killings come a week after the attorney general's office encouraged civilians to arrest lawbreakers and hand them over to police. They are emblematic of the chaos sweeping Egypt and a security breakdown of frightening proportions.

It was one of the most extreme cases of vigilantism in two years of sharply deteriorating security following the 2011 uprising. Gruesome photos circulated quickly on Facebook and other social media outlets, showing images taken by people in the crowd of thousands who watched and recorded the lynchings on cell phone cameras.

The killings were in the town of Samanod, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) north of Cairo in the Nile Delta province of Gharbiya.

Mamdouh al-Muneer, spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood group in the Gharbiya governorate, told The Associated Press that the lynchings followed a spate of rapes in the area. He said there have been a number of incidents in the past several months of girls being abducted while leaving school.

"Unfortunately, the police are completely out of the picture in Gharbiya. They are not comfortable with their position, with the president or with their role after the uprising," he said.

The Brotherhood is the country's dominant political group.

Egypt is currently mired in another wave of protests, clashes and unrest that have plagued the country since the ouster of authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in the pro-democracy uprising two years ago.

This wave of unrest has also engulfed the nation's police force. Thousands of officers and low-ranking policemen have broken ranks, staging protests and waging strikes against what they say is the politicization of the force by President Mohammed Morsi, who came from the Muslim Brotherhood, and his interior minister.

The state-run newspaper Ahram reported on its website that the events in Samanod began when the two men were dragged in the street after being caught "red-handed" trying to steal a motorized rickshaw. Witnesses said they were also accused of kidnapping a girl inside the rickshaw, but that she escaped unharmed.

A witness said they were beaten but still alive before they were strung up from the rafters of an open-air bus station. Both were stripped down to their underwear.

Photographs from the scene show one of the bodies hanging with deep, bloody lacerations covering his back. From the front, one of the men's face is completely covered in blood. Other shots showed both hanging by their feet, bruised, cut and bleeding.

A photographer who witnessed the scene told the AP that some in the crowd threatened to kill him if he took pictures of the lynchings with his professional camera.

He said that women and children were in the crowd of about 3,000 watching the lynchings, some from their balconies overlooking the scene, and some chanted in support "kill them!"

Afterward, residents took their bodies and dumped them on the doorstep of a nearby police station, according to witnesses.

Other photographs show the men lying on the ground dead in their underwear, with ropes around their feet.

Their bodies are covered in dirt, bruises, blood and lacerations as a group of men gathered around them. One man in the angry crowd grasped a knife in one fist and another held up a bloodied wooden stick.

Security officials said some in the crowd tried to help free the two men but were pushed back by others.

The bodies were later taken to the morgue for identification, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Residents also threatened to lynch another two men accused of involvement in attacks on girls.

Witnesses said they were bracing for possible blood feuds between residents of Samanod, where the attack took place, and the nearby village of Mahallahit Ziyad, where the two men killed were from.

Ahram reported that police could not reach the site of the hangings because angry microbus drivers had cut off all the major roads of the nearby city of Mahalla to protest a shortage of diesel fuel, one of Egypt's many crises. Earlier in the day, residents there also burned tires and set up roadblock along a main train track to protest the fuel shortages.

"The lack of security has created a sense of terror here," one witness said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. "The entire area is shut down because of protests against the fuel shortages."

Citizens have grown bolder in taking matters into their own hands following the 2011 uprising. The country's once powerful and feared police force was left weakened after the revolt.

Thousands of policemen are now on strike to demand better working conditions and they also refuse to confront widespread protests against President Morsi's leadership.

Some of the striking police officers allege that Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood is attempting to control them. The Brotherhood denies that.

Al-Muneer, the Brotherhood spokesman in Gharbiya, accused some policemen of hoping for a collapse of security to pave the way for the old regime to return to power. That same accusation has been leveled at the police repeatedly, both in the midst of the uprising and the aftermath.

He said the Brotherhood fully rejects the killings and said citizens should have arrested the two but then handed them over to police.

The attorney general's call for citizen arrests a week ago was prompted by the police strike and deteriorating security. Opponents of his call fear that this is a prelude to the substitution of police by militias, including those belonging to other Islamist groups allied with Morsi and the Islamic fundamentalist Brotherhood.

Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who oversees the country's police, met with officers and low-ranking policemen to hear their demands on Sunday.

Two days earlier, Morsi attended traditional Islamic prayers at a Cairo-based camp for riot police. He praised the force despite public criticism over their violent response to anti-government demonstrations.

Morsi is facing an onslaught of challenges, from the police strikes to an increasing number of violent sexual attacks on women to mounting diesel shortages that have crippled daily life for millions in Egypt.

And although vigilante killings are not frequent in Egypt, there have been similar attacks in the past two years.

In 2012 in northern Sharqiya province, police said relatives of a man who was killed when muggers tried to steal his car lynched one of the thieves. They then burned his body while it hung from a light pole.

Another case that year was in the Nile Delta province of Mansoura, where relatives of a victim took justice into their own hands and lynched two suspected killers.

Anger at Morsi was on display again Sunday, when protesters took their demands to the Brotherhood's doorstep. Hundreds clashed with police who fired tear gas at the crowd outside of the Islamist group's Cairo headquarters.

The crowd was responding to an assault on journalists, who claimed they were attacked by Brotherhood members Saturday evening during coverage of a meeting.

The journalists said that after a group of activists sprayed anti-Brotherhood graffiti on the ground outside the group's Cairo headquarters, the Brotherhood guards attacked with sticks and chains.

Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said in a statement that guards outside the building were provoked and insulted by the activists and journalists.

Many of the group's offices were attacked across the country in December during violent protests over the drafting of the constitution.

Dozens of journalists rallied outside their syndicate in the capital Cairo against the incident.

Diaa Rashwan, the newly elected head of the syndicate who replaced a figure considered by most journalists as pro-Brotherhood, said he would file a lawsuit against the Brotherhood spokesman for suggesting that journalists had incited the violence.

The opposition party Al-Dustor, led by Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, blamed the Brotherhood's leadership for allegedly encouraging "militias" loyal to the group to join the fight.

There were clashes on Saturday during protests against Morsi and the Brotherhood during the president's trip to the impoverished governorate of Sohag. The presidency on Sunday denied that opposition protesters had tried to storm the hall where Morsi had been speaking, despite video that showed the attempt.

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Britain to devolve public spending to boost growth

LONDON (Reuters) - A plan to devolve potentially billions of pounds of public spending to local authorities and businesses in Britain to boost a stagnant economy won a green light from the government on Monday.

The Treasury said the coalition government had approved almost all the recommendations in a blueprint drawn up by Michael Heseltine, a former Conservative deputy prime minister.

The scheme will see public money for projects such as housing and transport, now controlled by various government departments, pooled into a single pot from 2015.

Regional groupings of local authorities and businesses - known as local enterprise partnerships - will bid for the funds and, if successful, oversee how they are spent.

The amount of money to be allocated to the new "Single Local Growth Fund" will be decided in a spending review to be published in June.

Heseltine had said shifting public spending away from central government would make the country more competitive.

He said on Monday the government's decision to accept the majority of his recommendations was "the most strategic supply-side decisions" he could recall.

"In essence, it accepts that London and its functional bureaucracies should rely more on the incentivisation of England's provinces and less on central instruction," Heseltine added in a statement released by the Treasury.

One issue left for a later decision was how to devolve funding for training and apprenticeships to the local level.

Officials at the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), led by Liberal Democrat Vince Cable, have argued that fixing Britain's skills shortage required a national approach, people familiar with the negotiations said last week.

The government rejected a proposal to make greater use of its existing powers to investigate foreign takeover bids of British companies, arguing Britain was committed encouraging open markets and inward investment.

(Reporting by Tim Castle and William Schomberg; Editing by Stephen Powell)

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Venezuela's Chavez to be embalmed for public view

CARACAS (Reuters) - Sobbing and shouting, a sea of Hugo Chavez's supporters paraded his coffin through the streets of Caracas on Wednesday in an emotional outpouring that could help his deputy win an election to keep his socialist revolution alive.

Hundreds of thousands of "Chavistas" marched behind a hearse carrying the body of the flamboyant and outspoken president, draped in Venezuela's blue, red and yellow national flag.

Avenues resounded with chants honoring the former paratrooper as supporters showered flowers onto his coffin and jostled to touch it. Loudspeakers played recordings of the charismatic socialist giving speeches and singing.

Some supporters held heart-shaped placards that read: "I love Chavez!" Others cheered from rooftops, waving T-shirts.

Ending one of Latin America's most remarkable populist rules, Chavez died on Tuesday at age 58 after a two-year battle with cancer that was first detected in his pelvis.

His body was taken to a military academy to lie in state at the tip of a grand esplanade until his state funeral on Friday.

The future of Chavez's socialist policies, which won him the adoration of poor Venezuelans but infuriated opponents who denounced him as a dictator, now rests on the shoulders of acting President Nicolas Maduro, the man he tapped to succeed him.

"We ask our people to channel this pain into peace," Maduro said.

Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver and union leader, will face Henrique Capriles, the centrist governor of Miranda state, in an election now due within weeks in the OPEC nation with the world's largest oil reserves.

Opposition parties and Capriles have agreed he will make another bid for the presidency, sources said on Wednesday.

He lost to Chavez in last year's election but had a respectable 44 percent of the vote, the best performance by any candidate against Chavez in a presidential vote.

One recent opinion poll gave Maduro a strong lead over the 40-year-old Capriles. Maduro is likely to benefit from the surge of emotion following the president's death.

Authorities said the vote would be called within 30 days, as stipulated by the constitution, but did not specify when.

The tall, mustachioed Maduro has long been a close ally of Chavez. He pledges to continue his legacy and it is unlikely he would make major policy changes.

He will now focus on rallying support from Chavez's diverse coalition, which includes leftist ideologues, business leaders who have contracts with the state, and radical armed groups called "colectivos."

Some have suggested Maduro might try to ease tensions with foreign companies and the U.S. government. Yet hours before Chavez's death, Maduro alleged that "imperialist" enemies had infected the president with cancer and he expelled two U.S. diplomats accused of conspiring with domestic opponents.

Venezuela's military commanders pledged loyalty to Maduro, who will be caretaker leader until the election, and soldiers fired 21-gun salutes to Chavez in barracks across the nation.

A victory by Capriles, a centrist politician who says Venezuela should follow Brazil's softer center-left model, would be welcome by investors and bring big changes - though he has urged calm.

"Don't be scared. Don't be anxious. Between us all, we're going to guarantee the peace this beloved country deserves," Capriles said in a condolence message.

Venezuelan debt prices fell on Wednesday as investors opted to lock in gains chalked up in anticipation of Chavez's death, citing short-term political uncertainty.

ALLIES

The stakes are also huge for leftist Latin American allies like Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia that for years have relied on Chavez for economic aid.

But past and present leaders of other countries in the region - mainly free-traders like Peru, Chile, Colombia, Panama and Mexico - periodically rejected his overtures, criticized his statist policies and, for Washington, served as a buffer against him.

It was not immediately clear where Chavez would be buried.

He had ordered a striking new mausoleum built in downtown Caracas for the remains of 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar, his inspiration, and it is due to be finished soon. Some allies are already saying he should be buried there.

Despite the tumult around the coffin procession, much of Caracas was quiet, with streets deserted, especially in wealthier districts. Many shops locked their doors out of fear of looting. There were long lines outside gasoline stations.

A stony-faced Bolivian President Evo Morales joined Maduro at the front of the procession. The presidents of Argentina and Uruguay joined them for a vigil by the coffin. Other regional leaders were slated to attend his funeral on Friday.

"This has hit me very hard, I'm still in shock," said Leny Bolivar, a 39-year-old education ministry worker, her eyes red from tears. "We must keep fighting; he set out the way."

Condolences flooded in from around the world - ranging from the Vatican and the United Nations to allies like Iran and Cuba.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad mourned Chavez's death as a great loss, extolling his opposition to the "war on Syria."

OBAMA REACHES OUT

U.S. President Barack Obama was less effusive about a man who put his country at loggerheads with Washington, saying his administration was interested in "developing a constructive relationship with the Venezuelan government."

In a potentially conciliatory gesture, the United States, a major oil client of Venezuela, is expected to send a delegation to the funeral.

Opponents at home hoped for a fresh start.

"Chavez was very dominant and used the powers of state in a very discretional way, as though this was his own estate," Juan Vendrell, a 58-year-old engineer, said in a wealthy neighborhood of Caracas. "I would like a change and for institutions and democracy to be restored."

Chavez led Venezuela for 14 years and had won a new six-year term in an election in October, defeating Capriles.

His folksy charisma, anti-U.S. diatribes and oil-financed projects to improve life for residents of long-neglected slums created an unusually powerful bond with many poor Venezuelans.

That intense emotional connection underpinned his rule, but critics saw his autocratic style, gleeful nationalizations and often harsh treatment of rivals as hallmarks of a dictator whose policies squandered a historic bonanza of oil revenues.

The nationalizations and strict currency controls under Chavez frightened off investors. Even some of his followers complained that he focused too much on ideological issues at the expense of day-to-day problems such as power cuts, high inflation, food shortages and violent crime.

Chavez's health declined sharply just after his re-election on October 7, possibly due to his decision to campaign for a third term instead of stepping aside to focus on his recovery.

The government declared seven days of mourning.

"His legacy will be the transformation of Venezuelan political culture, putting social inequality and poverty alleviation at the top of the political agenda," said Diego Moya-Ocampos, a Venezuela analyst.

"However, that came at the cost of greater authoritarianism in government and challenges to democracy as he sought to consolidate his leadership."

(With reporting by Enrique Andres Pretel, Deisy Buitrago, Marianna Parraga, Ana Isabel Martinez and Daniel Wallis; Editing by Terry Wade, Kieran Murray and Xavier Briand)

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