"Venezuela and China sign oil deal"

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has offered China wide-ranging access to the country's oil reserves. The offer, made as part of a trade deal between the two countries, will allow China to operate oil fields in Venezuela and invest in new refineries.

Venezuela has also offered to supply 120,000 barrels of fuel oil a month to China.

Venezuela - the world's fifth largest oil exporter - sells about 60% of its output to the United States.

Mr Chavez's administration, which has a strained relationship with the US, is trying to diversify sales to reduce its dependence on its largest export market.

Full Article : bbc.co.uk

Chavez ponders Mao and Bolivar friendship
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has blasted U.S. imperialism, called capitalism the road to hell and said Mao Zedong and Venezuela's 19th century independence hero Simon Bolivar would have been mates had they met.

Full Article : swissinfo.org