Venezuelan president applauds agreement on referendum on his rule

SF Chron - AP --President Hugo Chavez applauded an agreement on plan for a referendum on his rule, saying he hoped his foes had shed what he called their "coup-plotting" tendencies.

The deal, due to be signed Thursday, was brokered by the Organization of American States in a bid to bring stability to the oil-rich nation, which in the past 13 months has seen a brief coup and a strike that devastated the economy amid the dispute between Chavez and the opposition trying to remove him.