Salon.com > Paul Haven

Castro pens article slamming health rumors

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:15:00 +0000

HAVANA (AP) — Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said he doesn't even suffer from headaches in an article he published in state-media Monday criticizing those who spread rumors he was on his death bed.

The article, ironically titled "Fidel is Dying," is accompanied by photos taken by son Alex Castro that show the revolutionary icon standing outside near some trees wearing a checked shirt and cowboy hat, including one in which he is seen reading Friday's copy of the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

Castro is leaning against a cane in the photos and he looks every bit his 86 years, but his eyes are sharp and his expression determined as he gestures with his left hand.

"I don't even remember what a headache feels like," Castro claims in the article, adding that he was releasing the photos to show "how dishonest" the rumor mongers have been.

Cubans reacted with a mix of support and cynicism.

"He looks well to me and the truth is I'm happy, but one day he will die because at his age he's on borrowed time," said Camilo Fuentes, a 67-year-old Havana resident.

"I think it is a big show," said Carina Rojo, a 57-year-old retiree. "People don't care anymore ... there is much more interest in these things outside the country."

Olympics come to rocking end with a pop party

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:04:49 +0000

LONDON (AP) — A fun, festive and fast-moving Olympic closing ceremony got off to a rocking start Sunday with a shout-out to Winston Churchill and a celebration of the Union Jack.

Pop bands Madness, Pet Shop Boys and One Direction opened an extravaganza that promised to keep a worldwide audience entertained well into the night — and dancing all the way to Rio.

Just a few minutes in, the show, put together by artistic director Kim Gavin, already featured a sensory blast including rock 'n' roll rickshaws, dustbin percussionists, an exploding yellow car and a marching band in red tunics.

There was also a pageant of monochrome recreations of London landmarks covered in newsprint, from Big Ben's clocktower and Tower Bridge to the London Eye ferris wheel and the chubby highrise known as the Gherkin.

It all spread out across an Olympic Stadium floor arranged to resemble the British flag.

Street percussion group Stomp built the noise into a frenzy, and dancers brandished brooms, in a nod to the spontaneous popular movement to clean up London after riots shook neighborhoods not far from Olympic Stadium just a year ago.

And there was much, much more to come.

Olympics to close with pop party extravaganza

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 14:20:40 +0000

LONDON (AP) — British rock stars are seizing the stage to close the Olympics with an extravaganza that promises to keep a worldwide audience entertained well into the night — and dancing all the way to Rio.

The Who, the surviving members of Queen and the Spice Girls were expected to headline a fun and frivolous closing ceremony, celebrating the remarkable crop of pop icons the host country has given the world for decades.

Artistic director Kim Gavin has promised "the best after-show party that's ever been," and as details of the lineup leaked in the British press days ahead of time, there was no reason to doubt him.

The ceremony had something for everyone, from tween girls to 1960s hippies. George Michael, Muse, Fatboy Slim and the One Direction, the British cotton-candy boy band of the moment, were all expected to perform.

The best seats were for the 10,800 Olympic athletes, set to march in as one and form what Gavin has described as a human mosh pit on the field. Queen Elizabeth II, who made a memorable mock parachute entrance at the opening ceremony, will be on hand.

Saudi judo fighter prepares for battle

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 18:51:13 +0000

LONDON (AP) — A teenage Saudi judo fighter is preparing for the battle of her life — and not only on the mat.

Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani will take on Puerto Rico's Melissa Mojica in a preliminary match early Friday that is likely to be over in record time.

The real drama will be after that, in reaction to what she'll be wearing in front of male spectators.

Shahrkhani, one of the first two women ever to compete at the games for the conservative Gulf kingdom, will fight in a modified hijab under a deal worked out between Olympic officials, the international judo federation, and Saudi authorities.

While the 18-year-old has many supporters in the region, the compromise has not been nearly enough to satisfy hard-liners who say she is dishonoring herself and her family by competing in front of men — and in form fitting clothes. Several have told her not to jeopardize her place in the afterlife for a fleeting bit of fame on earth. Others have warned that she and her family could face ostracism when she goes home.

"She will definitely face difficulties (back home)," Hashem Abdo Hashem, editor-in-chief of Saudi's Arabic daily newspaper Okaz, told The Associated Press. "The society here will look at her negatively."

Cuba’s Fidel Castro: I quit as party chief 5 years ago

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:53:00 +0000

Fidel Castro said Tuesday he resigned five years ago from all his official positions, including head of Cuba's Communist Party, a pre-eminent job in the island's political pantheon that he was thought to still hold.

It was the first time the 84-year-old revolutionary icon has said he no longer heads the Communist Party, which he has led since its creation in 1965. The Communist Party website still lists him as first secretary, with his brother President Raul Castro listed as second secretary.

The declaration raised questions about just how much power Fidel Castro has been wielding behind the scenes -- with or without a formal post -- and to what extent Raul Castro has had true freedom to make his own decisions.

Castro wrote in an opinion piece that when he got sick in 2006, "I resigned without hesitation from my state and political positions, including first secretary of the party ... and I never tried to exercise those roles again."

He said that even when his health began to improve, he stayed out of state and party affairs "even though everyone, affectionately, continued to refer to me by the same titles."

Cuban leaders lay out details for massive layoffs

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:35:00 +0000

Cuba's communist leaders have already determined what they want soon-to-be-dismissed workers to do after they get their pink slips in massive government layoffs, detailing a plan for them to raise rabbits, paint buildings, make bricks, collect garbage and pilot ferries across Havana's bay.

The plans, along with a timetable for which government sectors will get the ax first, are laid out in an internal Communist Party document obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. Cuba on Monday announced plans to cut 500,000 state workers by March 2011 and help them get work in the private sector, in the most sweeping reforms instituted since President Raul Castro took over from his brother in 2008.

Many of those to be let go will be urged to form private cooperatives. Others will be pushed into jobs at foreign-run companies and joint ventures. Still more will need to set up their own small business -- particularly in the areas of transport and house rental -- according to an internal Communist Party document obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Fidel Castro: Osama bin Laden is a U.S. agent

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:41:21 +0000

Fidel Castro says al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is a bought-and-paid-for CIA agent who always popped up when former President George W. Bush needed to scare the world, arguing that documents recently posted on the Internet prove it.

"Any time Bush would stir up fear and make a big speech, bin Laden would appear threatening people with a story about what he was going to do," Castro told state media during a meeting with a Lithuanian-born writer known for advancing conspiracy theories about world domination. "Bush never lacked for bin Laden's support. He was a subordinate."

Castro said documents posted on WikiLeaks.org -- a website that recently released thousands of pages of classified documents from the Afghan war -- "effectively proved he was a CIA agent." He did not elaborate.

The comments, published in the Communist Party daily Granma on Friday, were the latest in a series of provocative statements by the 84-year-old revolutionary, who has emerged from seclusion to warn that the planet is on the brink of nuclear war.

6.1 aftershock strikes Haiti

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:28:00 +0000

The most powerful aftershock yet struck Haiti on Wednesday, shaking more rubble from damaged buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets eight days after the country's capital was devastated by an apocalyptic quake.

The magnitude-6.1 temblor was the largest of more than 40 significant aftershocks that have followed the Jan. 12 quake. The extent of additional damage or injuries was not immediately clear.

Wails of terror rose from frightened survivors as the earth shuddered at 6:03 a.m. U.S. soldiers and tent city refugees alike raced for open ground, and clouds of dust rose in the capital.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday's quake was centered about 35 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Port-au-Prince and 6.2 miles (9.9 kilometers) below the surface -- a little further from the capital than last week's epicenter was.

"It kind of felt like standing on a board on top of a ball," said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Steven Payne. The 27-year-old from Jolo, West Virginia was preparing to hand out food to refugees in a tent camp of 25,000 quake victims when the aftershock hit.

Last week's magnitude-7 quake killed an estimated 200,000 people in Haiti, left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million homeless, according to the European Union Commission.