A senior official of the CNE, Tibisay Lucena, said no irregularity has been spotted in the auditing of 150 electoral centers, as confirmed by the international observers.

In 15 percent of the audited centers, "we have not drawn a single ballot showing any irregularity," she added.

Representatives of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the US-based Carter Center, which jointly carried out the audit Thursday with the CNE at the request of the opposition, said that until Thursday, 35 percent of the random sampling of 150 voting centers, out of a total of 12,358, had been checked.

The audit, made on a random sampling of 400 voting machines, aimed to dispel fraud charges from the opposition in the referendum, which accused the government of tampering with electronic voting machines to give Chavez 59 percent of the vote, compared with 41 percent backing its recall.

However, opposition leaders boycotted the audit, saying it was not stringent enough, and demanded a far wider audit to include the touch-screen machines used in the referendum.

Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and reelected to a six-year term in 2000, rejected his opponents' accusation and said they are trying to stir up anti-government unrest in Venezuela.

On Friday, CNE Director Jorge Rodriguez also said the auditing of the votes of the recall referendum has "very overwhelming" results of the legitimacy of the process.

The auditing was carried out although there was no formal charges of fraud as claimed by the opponents of President Chavez, he noted.

Rodriguez insisted that until now, the CNE has not received a single charge of fraud. "Everything will be sufficiently cleared up by the time we present the auditing results which, from my perspective are overwhelming," he said.

"This is the last auditing by the CNE in order to bring calm to people who have been bombarded by a series of denunciations that are, from our perspective, unfounded," said Rodriguez.

Meanwhile, both the Carter Center and the OAS have expressed their attitude toward the fairness of the referendum.

"Based on our prior examination of the voting machines, we expect the audit will confirm the results," said Jennifer McCoy, leader of the Carter Center observer mission.

"If there is a significant pattern, ... this audit will demonstrate it," she added.

On Thursday, the OAS said the fact that the same results of the recall referendum were registered in different voting machines "is not suspicious."

At a press conference, mission representative Edgar Castro said the results were similar in 47 voting machines.

According to a communique issued by the OAS, its international electoral observation mission validated the victory of Chavez, saying the results were "compatible with the internal controls effected by the mission."

"The electronic-voting system and the broadcasting of the results of the electoral journey were adequately audited, with all due conditions to ensure the secrecy and fidelity of the vote," it added.

Beside the international observers, many foreign countries have recognized Chavez's win. The United States, the biggest buyer of Venezuela's oil, has said that "the process was credible and met international standards."

About 10 million Venezuelans cast their votes in Sunday's referendum to decide whether President Chavez should finish the remaining two years of his six-year term or step down.

A massive turnout forced the authorities to twice extend the closing time of the referendum and keep polling stations open well after midnight.
 

25 dead in Venezuelan military plane crash
A Venezuelan air force plane crashed in the mountainous region in northern Venezuela, killing all 25 people on board, an aviation officials said Sunday.

Rescue workers reached the wreckage of the twin-prop Short C-23Sherpa early Sunday in the foothills of mountains in the northern state of Carabobo, and no survivors were found, said a spokesman for Venezuela's Civil Aviation Search and Rescue Center.

Air traffic controller lost contact with the plane Saturday afternoon after it encountered bad weather, the spokesman said.

Five children were among the dead who were a mixture of military personnel and civilians, he said.

Six homeless killed in four days in Brazilian city
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Assailants bludgeoned to death a woman sleeping on the streets of Sao Paulo, bringing to six the number of homeless people beaten to death in less than a week in South America's biggest city, police said Sunday.

Four other homeless people, three men and a woman, were seriously injured in similar attacks shortly before dawn on Sunday in different areas of downtown Sao Paulo.

"The attackers used iron bars or wooden clubs to beat the woman repeatedly in the head and face until she died," police inspector Francisco Pereira said by phone. He said the victim was about 40 years old.

He said the attacks were "similar" to those Thursday in which four homeless men were bludgeoned to death and six were seriously injured. All of the victims have been between 40 and 50 years old.

There were no witnesses and no arrests, Pereira said.

One of the six injured on Thursday died in the hospital early Sunday morning, Jose Roberto Mello, Sao Paulo City Hall press spokesman said by telephone.

Police said they were investigating if the attacks were a settling of accounts among the homeless themselves or the work of vigilante groups or skinheads.

Hundreds of homeless people, including women and children, sleep on downtown Sao Paulo streets most nights, according to city officials.

During a demonstration held in front of Sao Paulo's Roman Catholic cathedral to protest the killings, Mayor Marta Suplicy decreed three days of official mourning.

"I call on all of you to join forces to defend the homeless," Suplicy told a crowd estimated by police at close to 5,000. "We must put an end to this distressful situation."

Also present at the demonstration were the Archbishop of Sao Paulo, Cardinal Claudio Hummes and Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos.

"These massacres have damaged the image of Sao Paulo," the Rev. Julio Lancellotti, director of a Roman Catholic church group that cares for the homeless, told the Agencia Folha news agency. "Blood has stained our city."

For Edisio Simoes Souto, president of the Brazilian Bar Association's Human Rights Commission, the killings "demonstrate the intolerance Brazilian society has towards those it has excluded."

Justice Minister Bastos said in a statement that law enforcement officials would "spare no effort to solve the crime, find the culprits and bring them to justice."

In 1993, vigilante groups attacked a group of 50 homeless people in downtown Rio de Janeiro, killing eight. Six men -- all of them police officers moonlighting as private security guards -- were arrested. Three of the men were convicted of murder.