Hugo Chavez revives Venezuela election coalition

Mr Chavez hopes the Patriotic Pole will galvanise his supporters ahead of the October 2012 election

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has relaunched a left-wing political coalition designed to help him win reelection in exactly a year's time.

Grassroots organisations and smaller parties are being invited to sign up to the Great Patriotic Pole alongside the governing Socialist Party.

"This is a milestone in the course of the socialist revolution," Mr Chavez said at a ceremony in Caracas.

Mr Chavez has been in power since 1999, winning repeated election victories.

The 57-year-old leader says he is determined to win another term, despite having had surgery for cancer in June.

"We are going to give the bourgeoisie a beating!" he told supporters at the ceremony in the Miraflores presidential palace, where he danced and joked with local rappers.

Political parties, trade unions and other social movements have several weeks to sign up to the Patriotic Pole, which is designed to shore up support for Mr Chavez ahead of the elections in October 2012.

He is likely to face a strong challenge from opposition parties, which in February will choose a single candidate to stand against him.

The opposition is hoping to capitalise on discontent over high levels of violent crime and rising inflation.

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But Mr Chavez retains widespread support, particularly among poorer Venezuelans who have benefited from increased spending on health and education.

Opinion polls suggest he could win 60% of the vote in the October 2012 election. His illness has won him widespread sympathy.

But it has also raised concerns over whether he will be well enough to lead an effective campaign and govern Venezuela for another six-year term.

Earlier this week Mr Chavez dismissed rumours that he had been taken to hospital with kidney failure linked to his cancer treatment.

He says he is recovering his health after surgery and chemotherapy in Cuba.

But the exact nature and severity of his cancer have not been made public.

Microsoft Skype deal gets green light in Europe

Skype had previously planned a share flotation

Microsoft's takeover of internet phone service Skype has been approved by European authorities.

The $8.5bn (£5.4bn) deal would not "significantly impede effective competition across the single European market", the European Commission said.

There were "numerous players, including Google" in "this growing market", it added.

Luxembourg-based Skype has more than 650 million global users and is Microsoft's largest single acquisition.

The deal was first announced in May this year.

Internet auction house eBay bought Skype, which was founded in 2003, for $2.6bn in 2006, before selling 70% of it in 2009 for $2bn.

This majority stake was bought by a group of investors led by private equity firms Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowit.

Under the terms of the deal, Skype will now become a new division within Microsoft. Skype chief executive Tony Bates will continue to lead the business, reporting directly to Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer.

Calls to other Skype users are free, while the company charges for those made to both traditional landline phones and mobiles.

Dutch to reclassify high-strength cannabis

Much of the higher-strength cannabis will have to be removed from sale in coffee shops

The famous cannabis-selling coffee shops of the Netherlands are facing new tighter restrictions.

The Dutch government is reclassifying high-strength cannabis to put it in the same category as hard drugs.

It says the amount of the main active chemical in the drug, THC, has gone up, making it far more potent than a generation ago.

It means the coffee shops will be forced to take the popular, high-strength varieties off their shelves.

Dutch politicians say high-strength cannabis, known as "skunk", is more dangerous than it was before.

In the future, anything containing more than 15% THC will be treated the same way as hard drugs, such as cocaine and ecstasy.

The move is a big blow to the coffee shops - and means they will have to replace about 80% of their stock with weaker varieties.

Marc Josemans, who runs a cafe in Maastricht, says he believes that the new tough approach is being driven by the increasingly influential far-right in Dutch politics.

"You immediately can taste the difference. Everything which is considered unusual for them - they call it 'left hobbies' and under this name they want to ban all 'left hobbies', like using cannabis," he told the BBC.

The move means that the Netherlands' traditional tolerance of soft drugs is to become a thing of the past.

The ban on the high-strength "skunk" is expected to be introduced next year, when police will start doing random checks in the cafes.

From next year, the Dutch government also plans to ban tourists from entering coffee shops across the country.