11.   The constitutional assembly was elected last month with the mandate to rewrite the constitution.

12.   The military said it had all been a misunderstanding, that voters had elected not a government but a constitutional assembly.

13.   The same note was sounded by Leon Wessels, another liberal-minded National Party figure, who will be vice chairman of the constitutional assembly under Ramaphosa.

14.   Their money influences constitutional assemblies and determines elections.

15.   They have been able to eliminate extradition through their buying up of members of the constitutional assembly.

16.   Under the compromise, the referendum was not to be binding but its results would have served as a guideline for a constitutional assembly under the chairmanship of Lukashenko.

17.   Opposition leaders say Chavez is using the constitutional assembly to try to wipe out the last remnants of resistance to his administration and impose authoritarian rule.

18.   A constitutional assembly declared a judicial emergency in Venezuela on Thursday, giving itself sweeping new power to fire judges and overhaul the court system.

19.   A constitutional assembly, meanwhile, is drafting a new charter that may bring greater transparency and checks and balances to a political system widely criticized for corruption.

20.   A new Congress and Supreme Court are expected to emerge from the constitutional assembly, probably some time early next year.