Vzla: Students refuse to take basket and riot

Here's the basket Chavez's friends want Venezuelans to hold:

A top election official said Thursday that authorities have detected signs of possible fraud in a petition for a recall referendum against President Hugo Chavez and that they may need several more weeks to decide on its validity.

National Elections Council director Jorge Rodriguez said the council has set aside an unspecified number of signatures to be reviewed again and would not be ready to announce a decision in time for Friday's deadline.

Students in Venezuela say they're not taking that basket and riot against the postponement of the referendum decision.

Students clashed with police in two Venezuelan cities on Thursday as electoral authorities postponed a decision on whether leftist President Hugo Chavez should face a recall referendum.

The battles in Merida and Valencia between stone-throwing students and riot police firing tear gas and plastic bullets stoked fears that delays in the referendum process could lead to fresh political turmoil in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

Furious opposition leaders accused National Electoral Council officials of siding with Chavez after they said they could not fulfill an originally scheduled Feb. 13 deadline to announce the long-awaited referendum decision.

The electoral authorities said they would try to finish by the end of February the task of checking whether or not foes of the populist president had handed in enough valid signatures in December to trigger a recall vote this year.