A law allowing Cubans to travel abroad without special exit visas took effect on the communist-ruled island Monday for the first time in half a century.

According to the statute published in the Official Gazette, Cubans can now travel abroad without an exit permit or a foreign invitation provided they have a valid passport.

Cuban President Raul Castro on Saturday voiced his support for the Venezuelan government, as its cancer-stricken leader Hugo Chavez convalesces in Havana, with no sign of when or if he might return home.

Castro made the comments during a meeting with Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who arrived in the Cuban capital late Friday to check on his ailing boss, who had a difficult fourth round of cancer surgery last month.

Venezuela's ruling party and an opposition leader came to a rare agreement Monday, accepting that President Hugo Chavez's inauguration may be delayed if he is remains ill come January 10.

The firebrand leftist leader is experiencing a "slight improvement" in his condition as he follows doctors' orders to rest, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said.

President Hugo Chavez, despite an intensifying battle with cancer, has tightened his grip on Venezuela with his party crushing the opposition and winning most governorships in state races Sunday.

Chavez's top rival, Henrique Capriles, survived his own tough test, winning re-election as Miranda state governor. But Chavez's party gained in four other states, said electoral officials in this OPEC nation with the world's top proven oil reserves.

The United States said Wednesday it was aware of informal offers of asylum to Syrian President Bashar Assad by countries in the Middle East and elsewhere.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner gave no details, referring reporters to others governments after being asked about speculation that the Syrian president was weighing asylum offers from Latin America.

Musicians that perform songs deemed vulgar or that "violate ethical standards" will now be punished in Cuba, the state-run Institute of Music said Friday.

In communist Cuba, most everything -- especially the airwaves -- belongs to the government. Aside from hotels that cater to foreigners, there is no MTV, VH1 or HBO. There are no independent radio stations or newspapers.

Cuba on Wednesday announced elections will be held on February 3 for the country's national and provincial assemblies, a process controlled by Cuba's communist party.

Under the electoral system in place in Cuba since 1976, recently-elected delegates to municipal councils choose candidates from among themselves to run for the provincial assemblies and for half the seats in the National Assembly of People's Power.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was back in Cuba on Wednesday for further cancer treatment just weeks after being re-elected to a new six-year term, the state-run Granma newspaper reported.

The newspaper said Chavez arrived at dawn and would be undergoing several sessions of hyperbaric oxygenation, the breathing of pure oxygen in a sealed and pressurized chamber.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he is returning to Cuba Tuesday to continue treatment for cancer, raising new questions about his health just weeks after he won re-election to another six-year term.

Chavez, who had claimed in July that he was cancer free, disclosed his travel plans in a letter to the National Assembly that left unclear whether he had suffered a relapse.

Colombia's leftist FARC rebels declared a unilateral two-month ceasefire Monday as they began talks in Cuba with the Bogota government on ending Latin America's longest-running insurgency.

But the government of President Juan Manuel Santos immediately made clear it would not be bound by the ceasefire and military operations against the FARC would continue.