Venezuela VP stands in for Chavez before lawmakers

Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro took the place of ailing President Hugo Chavez by delivering a short speech and turning in a state-of-the-nation report amid legal debate about his legitimacy. aduro submitted the report in writing from Chavez’s govt while the president remained in Cuba undergoing treatment after his fourth cancer-related surgery. Opposition politicians argued that the annual speech should have been postponed because the president is supposed to deliver it, and about a dozen walked out in protest. Maduro announced during the speech, a day after visiting with Chavez in Cuba, that the president designated former vice president Elias Jaua as the new foreign minister.