LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “Yesterday, a suspected member of the Afghan national army shot and killed a British [NATO] soldier.”NATO command spokesman Brig.

Gen. Gunter Katz Article, 2A Chavez swearing-in postponed by vote

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan lawmakers voted Tuesday to postpone the inauguration of ailing President Hugo Chavez for his new term, prompting complaints from opponents who called it a violation of the constitution.

Chavez’s congressional allies, who hold a majority of seats in the National Assembly, agreed with a government proposal for Chavez to be sworn in at a later date before the Supreme Court. While pro-Chavez lawmakers approved the plan with a show of hands, opponents condemned the action as illegal.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro broke the news that Chavez would not be able to attend Thursday’s scheduled inauguration in a letter to National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, confirming suspicions that Chavez’s battle with cancer and a related respiratory infection would keep him in a Cuban hospital past the key date.

Maduro said that on the recommendation of Chavez’s medical team, his recovery process “should be extended beyond Jan. 10.”

The vice president said Chavez was invoking a provision in the constitution allowing him to be sworn in before the Supreme Court at a “later date.” The opposition disputed that argument and appealed to the Organization of American States.

Blaze rips through Nigerian slum

LAGOS, Nigeria - A fire tore through a waterfront slum in Nigeria’s megacity of Lagos on Tuesday, burning down dozens of shack workshops and homes. When firefighters didn’t turn up, locals tried in vain to stop the blaze with buckets of water.

The fire hit along the dirty shoreline of the Lagos Lagoon, an area full of sawmills that process lumber floated into the city from hundreds of miles away. Piles of sawdust and loose shavings fill the area. By Tuesday afternoon, a thick plume of smoke rose from the mills over the city’s long Third Mainland Bridge, which links the metropolis to its islands.

It was unclear whether anyone was injured in the inferno. Officials with Lagos state emergency services could not be reached for comment into Tuesday night. There were no firefighters, trucks or emergency equipment seen in the neighborhood.

Peru copter crash

fatal to 5 of U.S.

LIMA, Peru - Investigators picked through the wreckage Tuesday of a heavily loaded U.S.-owned cargo helicopter that crashed in the Peruvian jungle shortly after takeoff, killing its five American and two Peruvian crew members.

The tandem-rotor Chinook BH-234 helicopter, owned by Columbia Helicopters Inc. of the Portland suburb of Aurora, Ore., crashed Monday near from the provincial capital of Pucallpa.

It was under contract for petroleum exploration support and en route to a drilling location in northern Peru, said Todd Petersen, the company’s vice president of marketing.

Michael Fahey, the company president, told a news conference in Oregon the aircraft was carrying a sling load, an external cargo secured by cables. He did not specify the cargo.

Company officials said they had no immediate information on what might have caused the crash.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 01/09/2013