Hurricane Gonzalo kills one in St Martin and grows to category 3 storm

Storm sweeps into Caribbean with greater force than expected, destroying boats and moving north-west while continuing to grow

Hurricane Gonzalo grew into a major category 3 storm Tuesday and is expected to strengthen further as it heads toward Bermuda after killing a man in the Dutch Caribbean territory of St Martin, authorities said.

The storm had top sustained winds of nearly 115mph and was centered about 770 miles south of Bermuda on Tuesday afternoon, said the US National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was moving north-west at 13mph.

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Mexico accused of suppressing freedom of speech over hit documentary

Director of Presumed Guilty, which exposed miscarriage of justice in Mexico City, awaits rulings on claims for compensation

When Presumed Guilty - the nightmarish tale of a street vendor in Mexico City who was twice wrongly convicted of murder - was released in 2011, it won an Emmy for investigative journalism, broke Mexican box-office records, and triggered a fierce debate over the country's dysfunctional judicial system.

Nearly three years later, as important legal rulings are expected in two cases over the documentary, the film is banned in Mexico and the director has received death threats.

"The caller told me to tone things down or else," said Roberto Hern ndez. "The first threat was veiled, the second directly said they would kill me."

Hern ndez and his team set out to highlight the number of innocent people in the capital's jails through the story of a street vendor convicted of murder on very flimsy evidence amid obvious abuses of authority and due process. Less than a month after it was released in Mexico, the film was banned, but it became a pirate DVD sensation, raising hopes that the country's courts might be forced to clean up their act.

Those hopes soon turned into fears of a clampdown on freedom of expression as a barrage of court cases against the film gathered steam. The final court hearings in one of the damages cases was held last week, with a ruling expected in a couple of months. Taken together, the compensation sought hovers around 3bn pesos ( 150m).

"They are trying to make us litigate until we bleed," Hern ndez told the Guardian. "It is a terrible message for other journalists who might want to follow in our steps."

The film's legal problems mostly stem from complaints from a witness who admits, on camera, that he lied about seeing the street vendor, Antonio Zu iga, shoot the murder victim, and from the police officer who arrested Zu iga without a warrant or any obvious grounds for suspicion.

Neither plaintiff disputes the accuracy of the documentary, arguing instead that they never agreed to appear in it and have since been insulted in public places.

Meanwhile, the ban on showing, broadcasting or selling the film in Mexico appears to be on the point of being revoked - but only because the judge ruled the complainant had not provided "anthropometric proof" that he actually appears in the film.

"It is the stupidest thing," Hernandez said. "What we need from the court is an argument about freedom of expression."

The film-maker has directly accused the Mexico City's judicial hierarchy of secretly driving the cases against Presumed Guilty forward in an effort to exact vengeance for the way the film exposed the entire system.

Edgar El as Azar, the city's most senior judge, has denied any kind of meddling. "We cannot shut the door to these people who are looking for compensation for the exploitation of their story, their life and their image," he told reporters last week.

Hugo Chávez is getting more chemotherapy, says vice-president

Nicol s Maduro says Venezuelan president 'continues his battle for life' after recovering from respiratory infection

Hugo Ch vez has been receiving chemotherapy since recovering from a severe respiratory infection in mid-January and "continues his battle for life", his vice-president has said.

It is the first time anyone in the Venezuelan government has mentioned chemotherapy as a treatment being received by the president since he had cancer surgery in Cuba on 11 December.

Nicol s Maduro made the disclosure after a mass for Ch vez in a new chapel outside the military hospital where authorities say the president has been since being flown back to Caracas on 18 February.

The vice-president quoted Ch vez as saying he had decided to return to Venezuela because he was entering "a new phase" of "more intense and tough" treatments and wanted to be in Caracas for them.

Maduro's comments came hours after an accusation by the opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, that the government had lied about Ch vez's condition.

"We'll see how they explain to the country in the [coming] days all the lies they have been telling about the president's situation," Capriles, whom Ch vez defeated in elections on 7 October, said in a tweet.

Ch vez has not been seen or heard from since going to Cuba for his fourth cancer surgery, except for a set of "proof of life" photos released on 15 February while he was still in Havana.

Ch vez first revealed an unspecified cancer in the pelvic region in June 2011, and reported undergoing radiation treatment and chemotherapy after earlier operations.

The government has sent mixed signals on Ch vez's condition, although Maduro has said several times that he is battling for his life. He repeated that on Friday, and also accused opponents of spreading rumours about Ch vez's health to destabilise the nation.

Maduro, Ch vez's chosen successor, said his boss's condition was extremely delicate over the new year as he battled a respiratory infection that required a tracheal tube.

"In mid-January he was improving, the infection could be controlled, but he continued with problems of respiratory insufficiency. Afterwards, there was a general improvement, and the doctors along with President Ch vez decided to initiate complementary treatments," Maduro said.

"You know what the complementary treatments are, right? They are chemotherapy that is applied to patients after operations."

The opposition says Ch vez should either be sworn in for the new term he won in the election or declare himself incapable and call a new election. The constitution says he should have been sworn in on 10 January, but Venezuela's supreme court said it could be delayed.

Venezuelans back Hugo Chávez to win 'battle for life'

President, who has cancer in pelvic region, has not been seen in public for months, but 58% believe he will recover

Hugo Ch vez is still fighting for his life, said the country's vice-president on Thursday night, yet a recent poll says nearly three in five Venezuelans believe their president will return to power.

Nicolas Maduro, Ch vez's presumed successor, said on television that his boss "is battling there for his health, for his life, and we're accompanying him".

The vice-president had characterised Ch vez's condition similarly on 20 December, saying the president "is fighting a great battle ... for his life, for his health".

Ch vez has not spoken nor been seen in public since before his fourth operation in Cuba on 11 December for an unspecified cancer in the pelvic area.

The government says he has been breathing with the help of a tracheal tube after surviving a serious respiratory infection. It says Ch vez returned on 18 February and is at a military hospital in Caracas for continued treatment for "respiratory insufficiency".

Despite speculation by doctors not involved in Ch vez's treatment that it is most likely palliative, designed only to make him more comfortable in his remaining days, many Venezuelans apparently believe - or want to believe - he is on the mend.

"The president's prolonged absence and his critical situation have not been converted into massive pessimism about his return," respected pollster Luis Vicente L on tweeted on Thursday.

He said nearly 58% of Venezuelans believed Ch vez would recover while about 30% believed he would not return to power and 12.5% said they did not know what would happen. Meanwhile, 1% believed Ch vez was never sick.

L on, chief of the Datan lisis polling firm, told Associated Press that the 11 February poll of 1,198 people had an error margin of three percentage points.

He said he thought the poll reflected people's desire not to believe the worst about someone who is dear to them, just as people resisted accepting that a close relative might be dying.

L on also said he thought reports of government officials holding hours-long meetings with Ch vez had contributed to the belief of many Venezuelans that Ch vez would return.

"The government has sent permanent messages that President Ch vez will return, that he meets with the vice-president for five hours," Leon noted.

He said people did not necessarily believe that, however, as the poll found 44% think the government has not been transparent in discussing Ch vez's health.

In his televised remarks, Maduro called for Venezuelans to keep praying for Ch vez and remain loyal to the committed socialist who has been their president for more than 14 years.

"Do you know why Comandante Ch vez neglected his health and has been battling [cancer] for nearly two years?" he said. "Because he completely surrendered body and soul and forgot all his obligations to himself in order to give himself to the homeland."

Ch vez, 58, has acknowledged that he neglected his health in recent years, often staying up late and consuming cup after cup of coffee to remain alert.

The president has undergone surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments since June 2011, when he first announced his cancer diagnosis. He has not specified the type of cancer nor the exact location in his pelvic region where his tumours have been removed.

On 15 February, the government released four photographs of Ch vez lying in a bed in Cuba with his two daughters by his side. They were the only images of him published since early December.

Re-elected in October, Ch vez was scheduled to have been sworn in on 10 January, but the supreme court said the swearing-in could be delayed.