Among the nominees is Vice President-elect Samuel Navarro, who will concurrently serve as foreign minister, while Second Vice President-elect Ruben Arosamena will also be director of the Panama Maritime Authority.

Renowned actor and singer Ruben Blades was named director-general of the Panamanian Tourism Institute, which will be elevated to cabinet level.

The economy and finance portfolio will be taken by Ricardo Vasquez, deputy director of the Panama Canal.

Meanwhile, Torrijos, who won the presidential election on May 2 as candidate of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), announced the creation of the Office for the Social Integration of Handicapped People, the Office of Technological Innovation of the State and the Investment-Target Coordination Office, all of them attached to the presidency.

The cabinet also includes ministers of the Trade and Industry Ministry, the Interior and Justice Ministry and seven other ministries.
 

Vice president confident of Chavez's winning
Venezuelan Vice President Jose Rangel predicted Friday that President Hugo Chavez will win Sunday's recall referendum, and an "alternative leadership" is something out of the question.

The vice president told a press conference here that nobody is prepared to "take on the presidency, mostly in a situation like this that is so utopian."

"I will not be president of the republic because Chavez will not be recalled... Here the leader of the revolution and the process is Commander Chavez, and I am not in this position to enter into confrontations or disputes that are not of my interest," he added.

Under an agreement reached between the government and the opposition, if Chavez is revoked on Sunday, Rangel would take office and in 30 days presidential elections would be held.

On Thursday, Chavez pointed out that if he loses the referendum, he would step down and prepare to run in the coming presidential elections.

Chavez, who was accused by his opponents of wrecking the country's economy, has to face the referendum as they have collected 2.5 million signatures against him, more than the 2.4 million required to call a recall vote.

Under the Venezuelan constitution, in order to oust Chavez, the opposition has to collect a number of votes equal to or higher than that obtained by the president in the 2000 election, which is at least 3.7 million votes.

So far, both Chavez and his opposition have expressed their confidence in winning the referendum. But analysts here said that Chavez is very likely to win due to his high supporting rate among the poor and the policies to boost the country's social and economic development.

In order to ensure fairness of the referendum, the Organization of American States (OAS) and some other international agencies have sent more than 400 observers to the South American country to monitor the whole process.

Valter Moreira, chief of the OAS observers mission, expressed his confidence over transparency on Wednesday, saying the previous tests that the organization conducted in Venezuela indicated that the voting systems are reliable.

On Friday, the international observers held talks with the pro-Chavez Maisanta Command and opposition coalition known as the Democratic Coordination, urging them to maintain calm during the whole voting process.

Meanwhile, some 118,000 Venezuelan troops have been deployed to guard the voting centers as of Thursday to ensure the order of the process, and they will respect and defend the results of the referendum, said Defense Minister Jose Garcia.

"The armed forces are there to support those who have to take decisions, and the armed forces will respect and defend the decision of National Electoral Council (NEC)," stressed Garcia.

"The armed forces would not consider ever a defeat occurred, regardless of who wins," said the minister, who added that the armed forces will abide by the constitutional principles and precepts.

On Friday, Energy and Mining Minister Rafael Ramirez said recalling the president's mandate would destabilize world oil markets, at a time when crude prices hiked near record levels.

He also said that the petroleum-sector workers will not accept a defeat of Chavez. "Nobody will accept it. If Venezuela enters into a period of instability..., I don't see a limit to the increase in the price of oil," he added.

According to the NEC, the referendum will take place from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., local time, with more than 14 million people expected to cast their votes. First results will be given by the NEC three hours after the closing of voting stations.

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and reelected to a six-year term in 2000, has experienced two general strikes, a 48-hour military coup in April 2002 and a strike at the beginning of last year.
 

4 Guantanamo detainees affirmed as "enemy combatants"
The US military has classified four detainees held at the US naval base prison at Guantanamo Bay,Cuba, as legitimate "enemy combatants" after a review process that started late July, the Pentagon said Friday.

"Four cases have now been through the complete process -- given the OK by the convening authority. And in all four of those cases,the detainees were deemed to be enemy combatants," Navy Secretary Gordon England, who was overseeing the process, told a news conference at the Pentagon.

The identities of the four were not released, but England said the State Department was notifying the embassies of their home countries of their formal status.

Twenty-one of the about 585 prisoners at Guantanamo have received hearings in the process that started on July 30, but the results of 17 others have not been reviewed by a Navy admiral to decide their status, he said.

The Pentagon initially declared all detainees at Guantanamo, most of whom were captured during the US-led war in Afghanistan, were enemy combatants and could be held indefinitely without charges, rather than prisoners of war who would have the right to protection under the Geneva Conventions.

Most of the detainees from about 42 countries have been held there without charges or access to a lawyer for about two and a half years.

The military review process, called "combat status review tribunals" by the Pentagon, for the prisoners started after the US Supreme Court ruled in late June that the prisoners have the right to contest their detention in the US courts.

Eleven of the 21 prisoners who have received hearings so far have refused to appear and testify, England said.

England said an additional 150 cases have been opened, and all the prisoners would have their cases heard before the end of the year.