As world of gadgets grows, online industry tunes in to video ads

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Internet video ads, long a sideshow in the online advertising market, are gaining in importance to marketers and Web publishers as they look to capitalize on consumers’ changing viewing habits and tap a $ 70 billion television market.

The ever-expanding array of gadgets that display online video, from tablets to Internet-connected TVs and DVD players, along with technology such as social media that facilitates distribution, has spurred new interest.

The growing trend means websites like Google Inc’s YouTube, Yahoo , AOL and Hulu have a better shot at tapping the mother lode of television advertising budgets, though video ads have a long way to go before they become as dominant a part of the marketing landscape as TV ads.

Research firm eMarketer says video is the fastest growing form of online advertising, with spending increasing 46 percent last year, and outpacing popular formats such as search ads and display ads.

Google does not break out financial results for its YouTube business, but CEO Larry Page said on Tuesday that spending among YouTube’s top 100 advertisers increased by more than 50 percent in 2012 compared with the year before.

There have been media reports that Facebook is developing a video ad service, and analysts will likely be looking for answers on that avenue when the social networking giant delivers its quarterly results on Wednesday.

At Yahoo, “one of our highest priorities was to create more online video experiences, because that’s where the demand is for advertising,” said Tim Morse, the former Yahoo finance chief who became CFO of video advertising technology company Adap.TV this month.

Advertisers are increasingly fond of video ads, Morse said, because of the similarities to TV.

“It’s the closest to what they’ve had offline. They’re looking for the same kind of medium where they can connect with consumers,” he told Reuters.

TURNING POINT

Chevrolet has been running online video ads for several years, but significantly ramped up its activities and investment in 2012, said Carolin Probst-Iyer, the manager of digital consumer engagement for the General Motors division.

“Last year was a bit of a turning point,” she said, as Chevrolet put greater emphasis on creating original video ads and looking for new ways to distribute spots, rather than simply running existing TV ads on YouTube and TV network websites.

One recent ad for the buzz-worthy new Corvette Stingray was viewed more times on mobile devices than it was on PCs, she said.

For Web publishers, video ads are good business. While typical banner ad rates can generate a few dollars per thousand views, video ad rates can reach $ 20 per thousand views, said eMarketer’s David Hallerman.

“All of the Internet advertising to date has come from print sources,” such as newspapers, magazines and yellow pages, said RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney.

“We’re are at a point where television ad budgets are likely to come online.”

The explosion of new screens such as smartphones and tablets greatly increases the venues where consumers can watch video, whether they’re at their desks or on a bus. And social networking, which makes it easy for users to share favorite videos, has given marketers added incentive to produce video ads that can gain additional exposure by tapping into the social slipstream.

YouTube’s head of industry development, Suzie Reider, said marketers are increasingly developing ads that are tailored for specific audiences, making it more likely that Web surfers will actually watch them.

“We’re living in a day and age where nobody has to watch an ad that they don’t want to watch,” said Reider. “You can skip them on the Web, you can skip them on TV.”

To make its website more appealing to advertisers, YouTube has helped create hundreds of “premium channels” featuring professionally produced video as opposed to the amateur clips YouTube is famous for. And it’s developed a type of video ad that users can skip after five seconds – advertisers only pay if the ad is watched all the way through.

PRICE DEFLATION?

Despite the growth in Web video ad spending, which eMarketer estimates reached $ 2.93 billion in the United States last year, the firm said the spending still represents only about 10 percent of the broader online advertising market.

And that is a mere drop in the bucket compared with the $ 68 billion that Kantar Media estimates was spent on television advertising in 2011.

One potential constraint is the way big brands and agencies organize their marketing budgets, says Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser. Online video ads are typically funded from Web ad budgets rather than a much larger pool set aside for TV.

Analysts also note that the rich rates websites collect for video ads will decrease as more Internet sites open to ads – something that’s already happening thanks to technology that automatically pairs ads with videos on websites.

Still, many analysts and industry executives are optimistic about what they see as the bigger picture.

“The number of people watching TV seems to be stagnating or declining, and the number of people turning to the Internet for entertainment is surging,” said RBC’s Mahaney. “It almost inevitably drives these TV budgets online”

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; additional reporting by Gerry Shih; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: As world of gadgets grows, online industry tunes in to video ads
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/as-world-of-gadgets-grows-online-industry-tunes-in-to-video-ads/
Link To Post : As world of gadgets grows, online industry tunes in to video ads
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Casey Anthony Declares Bankruptcy, Reconciles with Her Dad

By Steve Helling

01/27/2013 at 06:30 PM EST

Casey Anthony

Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/Polaris

Casey Anthony is broke.

The Florida woman who was infamously acquitted of killing her daughter, Caylee, has filed for bankruptcy in Florida. In the bankruptcy petition, she lists assets of $1,084 and debts of $792,119.23. She says she has no income – but she also lists no expenses for rent and utilities.

In a phone interview with Adam Longo, a reporter for CBS affiliate KPHO in Phoenix, Anthony says the move was necessary. "This is the next step towards closure for me," she said.

The bankruptcy will affect at least one of the civil cases against her. A woman named Zenaida Gonzalez claims that Anthony defamed her when she blamed her daughter's kidnapping on a woman with the same name. With the bankruptcy declaration, the case will shift to federal court.

"This most recent filing appears to be yet another calculated delay tactic," says Gonzalez's attorney, Matt Morgan."We are not deterred and will stay the course."

Anthony tells KPHO that she just wants the civil cases to go away. "These are the things holding me back," she said. "This is the key for me to move forward." She also released two pictures of herself taken in August 2012 with her legal team.

Anthony – one of the most reviled criminal defendants in recent memory – has been living in a condo in Cape Canaveral, Fla., since late last
year. In addition to regular contact with her mother, she has also reconciled with her father, George, who she previously accused of molesting her. (The condo was actually leased by George Anthony for his daughter to live in. The family attorney, Mark Lippman, had no comment.)

Creditors of Anthony – including her lawyers, the police, and the IRS – have 30 days to file a claim against her, or her debts to them will be wiped clean.

Read More..

CDC: Flu seems to level off except in the West

New government figures show that flu cases seem to be leveling off nationwide. Flu activity is declining in most regions although still rising in the West.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says hospitalizations and deaths spiked again last week, especially among the elderly. The CDC says quick treatment with antiviral medicines is important, in particular for the very young or old. The season's first flu case resistant to treatment with Tamiflu was reported Friday.

Eight more children have died from the flu, bringing this season's total pediatric deaths to 37. About 100 children die in an average flu season.

There is still vaccine available although it may be hard to find. The CDC has a website that can help.

___

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

Read More..

Fed waits for job market to perk up

LONDON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's ultra-loose monetary policy is a root cause of the "currency wars" that some see as a looming threat to the world economy, but don't expect the U.S. central bank to signal a shift back to normal any time soon.

The Fed, whose policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday, said just last month that it expects to keep short-term interest rates exceptionally low until the U.S. unemployment rate falls to 6.5 percent, inflation permitting.

That goal is still distant. Figures on Friday are likely to show that the jobless rate was unchanged in January at 7.8 percent, while the economy created 155,000 jobs, the same as in December, according to economists polled by Reuters.

So it would be a huge surprise if the Fed were to do anything other than reaffirm last month's decision to anchor short-term interest rates in a range of zero to 0.25 percent and to keep buying $85 billion of bonds each month to hold down long-term rates.

The only question mark is whether the FOMC vote will be unanimous now that Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, who opposes the current round of bond-buying, has rotated off the panel, said Harm Bandholz, an economist with UniCredit Bank in New York.

Most economists polled by Reuters expect the Fed to keep its open-ended bond-buying program in place well into next year, even though the economic news flow and market confidence are improving markedly.

True, Wednesday's preliminary report on fourth-quarter GDP is likely to show that growth slowed to an annualized rate of 1.2 percent from 3.1 percent in the July-September period.

And the current quarter will also be soft as the expiry of a 2 percent payroll tax cut is dampening consumer spending.

But then Bandholz expects an average growth rate of 2.8 percent over the rest of the year. That would be the strongest three-quarter period of the recovery so far, he said.

"The outlook has improved a lot in the U.S. I've been on the cautious side for the last three years, but this time I'm a bit more bullish," he said.

THE FED BIDES ITS TIME

The recovery in housing would add at least half a percentage point to GDP growth in 2013, while capital spending was likely to revive now that uncertainty over budget talks in Washington had been largely allayed, Bandholz said.

"There's a lot of pent-up demand in the system. I don't think all these investments have been abandoned; they've just been postponed," he said.

At some point, investors' exuberance over the super-easy stance of the world's major central banks will give way to worries that they are about to take away the punch bowl.

Gustavo Reis, an economist with Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York, said concerns about the costs of money-printing were likely to spread but would be offset by uncertainty over the impact on growth of fiscal tightening in the United States and Europe.

"All told, although global activity seems more robust now than at any point in 2012, we expect policymakers to continue to worry predominantly about downside risks," he said in a note.

The bank does not expect the Fed to consider halting asset purchases before 2014, while the latest episode of monetary easing announced by the Bank of Japan is likely to be ‘long-lived and significant'.

Many economists argue that bold monetary action is long overdue in Japan, whose nominal output has not grown in 20 years, saddling the government with a debt-to-GDP ratio of more than 220 percent.

But Douglas McWilliams, who heads the Centre for Economics and Business Research, a London consultancy, fears Japan's decision will lead the global economy into unpredictable currency wars.

"It's a bit like if someone's rude to you, you're rude to them back. You get tit-for-tat behavior," McWilliams said.

CURRENCY FRICTION, BUT NO WAR

Olivier Blanchard, the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, last week called talk of currency wars overblown and said countries had to pull the right policy levers to get their economies back on track, with corresponding consequences for exchange rates.

However, McWilliams said the problem was that it was difficult to get countries to agree NOT to wage currency wars.

Tellingly, Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced German concerns last week that Japan might be deliberately seeking to cheapen the yen to give its exporters a competitive edge.

"So we may well find that there is a period of very heavy volatility before the authorities involved try and get some kind of agreement," McWilliams said.

In a relatively quiet week for economic data in the euro zone - money supply figures and confidence surveys from the European Commission are the highlights - the focus is likely to remain squarely on the euro, which has been rising briskly as traders price in the policy shifts that Blanchard had in mind.

While the Fed and the Bank of Japan are expanding their balance sheets, the European Central Bank is starting to soak up some of the emergency cash it lent to banks a year ago.

The central bank said on Friday that banks would repay early 137 billion euros of cheap borrowed money.

"I'm not sure if we have too strong a euro for the moment but certainly we would not want to see a currency war of competitive devaluations which would have a negative effect on the euro," the European Union's top monetary official, Olli Rehn, told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Paul Taylor in Davos; editing by Jason Neely)

Read More..

The Lede Blog: Fire at a Nightclub in Southern Brazil

Victims of the fire are attended by medics — this video contains graphic images.

An intense fire ripped through a nightclub crowded with university students in southern Brazil early on Sunday morning, leaving behind a scene of horror, with bodies piled in the club’s bathrooms and on the street.

At least 233 people were killed, many of them students in the agronomy and veterinary medicine programs at a local university, police officials said. By Sunday evening, the authorities had released a preliminary list of the dead.

As Simon Romero reports, a flare from a band’s pyrotechnic show ignited the fire in the nightclub, called Kiss, in the southern city of Santa Maria. Rescue workers continued to haul bodies from the still-smoldering building on Sunday.

Amateur videos posted to YouTube showed scenes of chaos as medics scurried over the bodies of victims who appeared to be unconscious, checking for signs of life.

Medics rush to care for victims of the fire.

Officials and witnesses say that security guards at the club had locked some exits, sowing panic as people attempted to flee the flames and smoke.

“Only after a multitude pushed down the security guards did they see the crap they had done,” Murilo de Toledo Tiecher, 26, a medical student who survived the fire, said in comments posted on Facebook.

Shortly before the fire, a club D.J. posted a photo on Facebook from inside the crowded club apparently showing the pyrotechnic display on stage.

A short time later, another photo that was said to be taken outside the club and widely disseminated through social media showed smoke billowing from the front entrance.

BOATE KISS PEGANDO FOGO! http://t.co/tdV2DO4q

— Boatos SM ® #LUTO (@BoatoSM) 27 Jan 13

The fire quickly engulfed the building.

Firefighters and volunteers who used T-shirts to protect themselves from the smoke struggled to pull people from the burning building.

Firefighters and volunteers tried to pull people from the burning building

Photos from the scene showed frantic friends and family members gathered outside the club and a hospital.

As Mr. Romero reports, witnesses said the fire started about 2 a.m. after the band, Gurizada Fandangueira, took the stage. At least one member of the five-person band, which is based in Santa Maria and advertised its use of pyrotechnics, was said to have been killed in the fire.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the nightclub said that its operations are on hold and that it would assist the authorities with an investigation. “We would still like to reiterate that our staff has the highest technical qualifications and was properly trained and prepared for any contingency,” it added.

Overcrowding and a disregard for fire safety codes have led to deadly blazes at nightclubs in the past, though Sunday’s tragedy in Brazil is among the worst.

In 2003 in Rhode Island, also fire set off by a pyrotechnic display at a club killed about 100 people. A fire that erupted under similar circumstances in Russia left almost as many dead in 2009.

And in Luoyang, China in 2000, 309 people were killed in a fire that broke out at a dance hall, forcing some to leap from high-rise windows.

---

Read More..

How to Share Vine Videos on Tumblr

When Twitter launched Vine Thursday it omitted one important social network from its sharing options: Tumblr. Looped GIF images are extremely popular on Tumblr, so the audience there for Vine videos is potentially huge.

Just because there’s no native way to share Vines on Tumblr, doesn’t mean you can’t share your creations on the site. Here are few different ways you can include Vine videos in your Tumblr posts:

[More from Mashable: Facebook Explains Why Vine Can’t Access Your Friends]

Upload Directly To Tumblr

If you want to share your Vine on Tumblr, one of the easiest ways is to just upload it directly to your Tumblr from your iOS device using Tumblr’s app.

Every Vine you create is automatically saved to the camera roll on your device. To upload to Tumblr:

[More from Mashable: John Tesh Thanks 500 Helpful Tweeters With $ 5 Gift Cards]

• Launch the Tumblr app on your phone


• Create a new post


• Select video from the options


• Choose existing video


• Select the Vine you’d like to upload from the video clips stored on your phone

Vine videos shared this way will just play through once rather than loop. To get that looped effect, you can import the video clip into your favorite mobile video editor (Splice is a good example, but there are many others) and copy it several times, laying the copies down on the timeline, one after another. Once you’ve reached your desired length, export the video and upload it just as you would a traditional video through Tumblr.

If you don’t have a video editor on your phone, you can email the clip to yourself from your phone’s Photo Library and edit it on your computer instead.

Embed a Tweet

Embedding a tweet on Tumblr is the easiest way to share the looped version of your Vine. To embed a tweet:

• Share your Vine on Twitter


• Go to Twitter.com


• Click on the More button on the tweet associated with your Vine


• Select Embed Tweet


• Copy the code generated by Twitter and add it to a post on Tumblr

If you don’t want to share all your Vines through your own Twitter stream but want the ability to embed them, consider creating a Twitter account just for your Vines. Once you tweet them, you’ll be able to copy/paste tweets or links to your Vine from your special account to your main account fairly easily, and you won’t pollute your traditional Twitter stream.

Upload To Your Favorite Video Service

iOS devices offer the ability to upload video clips directly from your Photo Library to YouTube.

Vine video files are saved as MOV’s so you can upload the file to almost any video service and then embed that player into your Tumblr blog.

The file can also be downloaded onto your computer and uploaded to Tumblr (or other sites) any way you’d like.

Have you tried sharing Vine videos on Tumblr, or another site? Let us know your own tips and tricks for sharing the video clips in the comments.

Click here to view the gallery: How To Use Vine

Photo by Emily Price, Mashable

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: How to Share Vine Videos on Tumblr
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/how-to-share-vine-videos-on-tumblr/
Link To Post : How to Share Vine Videos on Tumblr
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Beyoncé Offers Sneak Peek of Super Bowl Show

01/26/2013 at 03:30 PM EST

Beyoncé has been mum about her lip-synching controversy, but the star is sharing what appear to be photos of another notable performance that's coming up: her Super Bowl halftime show.

In new photos posted on her Instagram site, the singer is seen in profile stretching while wearing Brooklyn Nets T-shirt. She also shares an image of a large group of dancers in silhouette with their arms extended, and another shot of a female dancer on the ground.

Beyoncé is set to perform at the Super XLVII on Feb. 3 in New Orleans. She will reunite with her Destiny's Child bandmates, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, for the highly anticipated performance.

Earlier this month, the former group announced plans to release a new song, their first new tune in eight years. "Nuclear" will appear on Destiny's Child – Love Songs, a greatest hits compilation of their most romantic recordings, set for release on Jan. 29.

Dancers

Courtesy of Beyonce

Read More..

CDC: Flu seems to level off except in the West

New government figures show that flu cases seem to be leveling off nationwide. Flu activity is declining in most regions although still rising in the West.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says hospitalizations and deaths spiked again last week, especially among the elderly. The CDC says quick treatment with antiviral medicines is important, in particular for the very young or old. The season's first flu case resistant to treatment with Tamiflu was reported Friday.

Eight more children have died from the flu, bringing this season's total pediatric deaths to 37. About 100 children die in an average flu season.

There is still vaccine available although it may be hard to find. The CDC has a website that can help.

___

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

Read More..

Wall Street Week Ahead: Bears hibernate as stocks near record highs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks have been on a tear in January, moving major indexes within striking distance of all-time highs. The bearish case is a difficult one to make right now.

Earnings have exceeded expectations, the housing and labor markets have strengthened, lawmakers in Washington no longer seem to be the roadblock that they were for most of 2012, and money has returned to stock funds again.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> has gained 5.4 percent this year and closed above 1,500 - climbing to the spot where Wall Street strategists expected it to be by mid-year. The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> is 2.2 percent away from all-time highs reached in October 2007. The Dow ended Friday's session at 13,895.98, its highest close since October 31, 2007.

The S&P has risen for four straight weeks and eight consecutive sessions, the longest streak of days since 2004. On Friday, the benchmark S&P 500 ended at 1,502.96 - its first close above 1,500 in more than five years.

"Once we break above a resistance level at 1,510, we dramatically increase the probability that we break the highs of 2007," said Walter Zimmermann, technical analyst at United-ICAP, in Jersey City, New Jersey. "That may be the start of a rise that could take equities near 1,800 within the next few years."

The most recent Reuters poll of Wall Street strategists estimated the benchmark index would rise to 1,550 by year-end, a target that is 3.1 percent away from current levels. That would put the S&P 500 a stone's throw from the index's all-time intraday high of 1,576.09 reached on October 11, 2007.

The new year has brought a sharp increase in flows into U.S. equity mutual funds, and that has helped stocks rack up four straight weeks of gains, with strength in big- and small-caps alike.

That's not to say there aren't concerns. Economic growth has been steady, but not as strong as many had hoped. The household unemployment rate remains high at 7.8 percent. And more than 75 percent of the stocks in the S&P 500 are above their 26-week highs, suggesting the buying has come too far, too fast.

MUTUAL FUND INVESTORS COME BACK

All 10 S&P 500 industry sectors are higher in 2013, in part because of new money flowing into equity funds. Investors in U.S.-based funds committed $3.66 billion to stock mutual funds in the latest week, the third straight week of big gains for the funds, data from Thomson Reuters' Lipper service showed on Thursday.

Energy shares <.5sp10> lead the way with a gain of 6.6 percent, followed by industrials <.5sp20>, up 6.3 percent. Telecom <.5sp50>, a defensive play that underperforms in periods of growth, is the weakest sector - up 0.1 percent for the year.

More than 350 stocks hit new highs on Friday alone on the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones Transportation Average <.djt> recently climbed to an all-time high, with stocks in this sector and other economic bellwethers posting strong gains almost daily.

"If you peel back the onion a little bit, you start to look at companies like Precision Castparts , Honeywell , 3M Co and Illinois Tool Works - these are big, broad-based industrial companies in the U.S. and they are all hitting new highs, and doing very well. That is the real story," said Mike Binger, portfolio manager at Gradient Investments, in Shoreview, Minnesota.

The gains have run across asset sizes as well. The S&P small-cap index <.spcy> has jumped 6.7 percent and the S&P mid-cap index <.mid> has shot up 7.5 percent so far this year.

Exchange-traded funds have seen year-to-date inflows of $15.6 billion, with fairly even flows across the small-, mid- and large-cap categories, according to Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group, in New York.

"Investors aren't really differentiating among asset sizes. They just want broad equity exposure," Colas said.

The market has shown resilience to weak news. On Thursday, the S&P 500 held steady despite a 12 percent slide in shares of Apple after the iPhone and iPad maker's results. The tech giant is heavily weighted in both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 <.ndx> and in the past, its drop has suffocated stocks' broader gains.

JOBS DATA MAY TEST THE RALLY

In the last few days, the ratio of stocks hitting new highs versus those hitting new lows on a daily basis has started to diminish - a potential sign that the rally is narrowing to fewer names - and could be running out of gas.

Investors have also cited sentiment surveys that indicate high levels of bullishness among newsletter writers, a contrarian indicator, and momentum indicators are starting to also suggest the rally has perhaps come too far.

The market's resilience could be tested next week with Friday's release of the January non-farm payrolls report. About 155,000 jobs are seen being added in the month and the unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 7.8 percent.

"Staying over 1,500 sends up a flag of profit taking," said Jerry Harris, president of asset management at Sterne Agee, in Birmingham, Alabama. "Since recent jobless claims have made us optimistic on payrolls, if that doesn't come through, it will be a real risk to the rally."

A number of marquee names will report earnings next week, including bellwether companies such as Caterpillar Inc , Amazon.com Inc , Ford Motor Co and Pfizer Inc .

On a historic basis, valuations remain relatively low - the S&P 500's current price-to-earnings ratio sits at 15.66, which is just a tad above the historic level of 15.

Worries about the U.S. stock market's recent strength do not mean the market is in a bubble. Investors clearly don't feel that way at the moment.

"We're seeing more interest in equities overall, and a lot of flows from bonds into stocks," said Paul Zemsky, who helps oversee $445 billion as the New York-based head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management. "We've been increasing our exposure to risky assets."

For the week, the Dow climbed 1.8 percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.1 percent and the Nasdaq advanced 0.5 percent.

(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Read More..

Chávez Is Optimistic, Says Venezuelan Vice President

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez is experiencing the “best moment” yet of his recovery from cancer surgery, Vice President Nicolás Maduro said Saturday.

He emphatically added that Mr. Chávez would return to Venezuela take charge of the government again.

Mr. Maduro spoke on his return from Cuba, where Mr. Chávez had surgery on Dec. 11.

“The commander is in the best moment that we have seen him in all these days of struggle and battle,” Mr. Maduro said. “He is smiling, he has a look full of light, he has a special illumination in his thought.”

Mr. Maduro said that Mr. Chávez had asked him to deliver a brief message to Venezuelans.

“He said tell the people that he is optimistic and has lots of faith in what we’re doing,” Mr. Maduro said, adding that Mr. Chávez was referring to his medical treatment. He said the president was “holding tight to Christ and to life.”

He went on to predict Mr. Chávez’s return, but did not say when that might occur.

“This blessed land of the Liberator will see our commander president, it will see him, in his time, in his time it will see him here,” Mr. Maduro said. “We’re going to have him, as he should be, as president, in charge of our country.”

Mr. Chávez has not been seen since his surgery last month. Unlike the president’s previous trips to Cuba for treatment, this time there have been no photographs or videos or television appearances, and Mr. Chávez has not called in to government run television programs to make his voice heard.

The political opposition has demanded more information about his condition and has asked for a team of medical experts to travel to Cuba to get an update on his health, but the government has rebuffed those requests.

Mr. Chávez has refused to say what kind of cancer he has or exactly where it was found in his body. Government officials have not offered details about his most recent cancer surgery, his fourth since June 2011. But on Saturday, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said that the purpose of the surgery was “to remove a malignant lesion in the pelvis.” He added that Mr. Chávez had recovered from a severe lung infection that occurred after surgery.

Mr. Chávez, who was re-elected in October, was unable to return to Venezuela for the inauguration for his new term, which began Jan. 10. The long absence has plunged the country into uncertainty and has led many to question whether he will be able to regain his health and continue as president.

Read More..