National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello has said that he has no intention of assuming power if Chavez is not sworn in.

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"No one really is daring to step out of their houses to buy anything, assuming they can find it in the market and assuming they find a place that is open, " he said.

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Assuming the physical evidence does not aid the jury in a "he said, she said" case, how does it decide whom to believe?

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Mr McWilliams said that the outcome could be even worse, as he was assuming in his forecast that there are no further terrorist attacks, that expected reprisals by the US do "not destabilise the world economy further", and public spending in the US is increased in response to the disaster.

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"For a white person reading a book, they're very rarely going to go, 'I'm just assuming this is a black character' if he or she isn't marked as such, " he said.

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