<i>Chavez muses on US LatAm cancer plot</i>

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday questioned whether the United States could be giving cancer to Latin American leaders, after Argentina's Cristina Kirchner was diagnosed with the disease.
"Would it be that strange if they had developed technology to induce cancer without anyone knowing about it?" Chavez asked, without offering any evidence that such technology existed.
He made the assertion against his arch-foe in a speech in which he also expressed his "solidarity" with Kirchner, whose spokesman said Tuesday she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and would undergo surgery next week.
Chavez said this was "very strange" but stressed that he was thinking aloud rather than making "rash accusations".
And he joked that he would now take extra care of the presidents of Bolivia and Ecuador - Evo Morales and Rafael Correa - lest they also be diagnosed with cancer.
Kirchner said earlier Wednesday that Chavez, who has himself waged a successful battle against cancer, was the first regional leader to call her to offer support.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Paraguay's Fernando Lugo have all been diagnosed with cancer in recent years.
Rousseff and Lugo say they are cancer-free. Lula is undergoing treatment.