CARACAS, Venezuela

Three television channels that Venezuela's cable and satellite TV providers recently dropped for allegedly violating new broadcasting regulations will be permitted to return to paid television programming.

Venezuela's telecommunications agency have announced that TV Chile, American Network and Ritmo Son have complied with rules approved last month by President Hugo Chavez's government.

The rules have increased concerns that Chavez is trying to silence his critics.

University students are staging daily protests because the anti-Chavez channel RCTV was dropped for failing to comply with regulations.

The protests continued Wednesday as hundreds of students demonstrated in the cities of Caracas, Maracaibo and Barcelona.

Sounds like the Chavez people are trying to remove some of the fuel from the fire.

It will be interesting to see if it has the desired effect.