As Fidel Castro hands the reigns of communist power to his culpable brother, can Cubans see a brighter future? As Musharraf's party is defeated by those courting terrorists, the media label him a dictator.
There is something wrong with a Western Media which is too mired in its support for the left to be able to report objectively.
Musharraf was a dictator. Fidel was ?
Musharraf has made the decision to pass power to another through elections. Fidel Castro has elected to retain it through family.
The electoral defeat of Musharraf's party is no shock. But the anti US media will be celebrating long and hard.
Musharraf allies out - Bhutto party
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THE party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto will try to form a coalition government without the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (PML), Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari said overnight.
The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) won the most seats in the National Assembly in a national election overnight, while President Pervez Musharraf's friends in the PML trailed a distant third.
"For now, the decision of the party is that we are not interested in any of those people who are part and parcel of the last government," Mr Zardari said in Islamabad.
He said the PPP would try to persuade the party of Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Mr Musharraf overthrew in 1999, to join the PPP in power.
US in no hurry to lift Cuba sanctions
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THE United States has no plans to lift the decades-old embargo on Cuba anytime soon, even after its longtime nemesis Fidel Castro resigned as president.
By quitting with little fanfare, the ailing 81-year-old Castro may have marked an anti-climactic end to an era that began in the Cold War, but he has left a deep thorn in Washington's side that may prove hard to remove.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte indicated as much when, asked by reporters today if Washington planned to lift sanctions, he stated: "I don't imagine that happening anytime soon''.
London-based Amnesty International urged Washington to end the embargo, complaining of practices that impinge on the human rights of Cubans, while critics dismissed it as an ineffective way to pressure for change.
Castro did not say who he thought should be his successor as president, although most mentioned it his 76-year-old brother Raul Castro, who the US State Department has dismissed as "Fidel light".
Expected fiery retirement speech didn't happen
Brian Latell, who was the top man at the Central Intelligence Agency for Castro for decades, said it was the end of an era marked by a larger-than-life Castro who stood up to a succession of US presidents on the world stage.
"It's anti-climactic in a way, because so many of us expected that Fidel would go out with a big boom of some kind," Latell told CBS, adding he had expected perhaps a fiery speech from him.
Latell anticipated some changes, but no major ones from Raul Castro, who he says is more practical and flexible than his elder brother.
"I think he's interested in implementing (grassroots) economic reforms. Not political reforms," Latell said.
A number of analysts in the last year have said they believe Cuba may eventually move toward the so-called Chinese model, adopting market reforms while maintaining the one-party system.
Summing up a policy intended to isolate Washington's southern neighbour, US President George Bush said the change in leadership ought to begin a democratic transition.
A commission on Cuba that Bush created in 2003 to help defeat the Castro regime has recommended a series of steps to speed up the emergence of democracy, including funding for dissidents and support for an eventual transition government committed to holding free elections.
White House hopefuls doubt Havana is moving to democracy
White House hopeful Democrat Barack Obama said Castro's exit from power was long overdue but insufficient to bring democratic freedom to communist Cuba.
Republican front-runner John McCain called Castro's resignation "nearly half a century overdue", but said "freedom for the Cuban people is not yet at hand, and the Castro brothers clearly intend to maintain their grip on power".
Defiant of Washington since seizing power in 1959, Castro has not only survived assassination plots, a US-backed invasion bid, and a US trade embargo but has worked hard to ensure his Marxist legacy endures.
Castro quits. Castro succeeds
ReplyDeleteAndrew Bolt
Fidel Castro quits as president of Cuba. But the dictator of Cuba apparently remains a Castro:
Fidel Castro has resigned as Cuba’s president and commander in chief, according to a Cuban newspaper… For the past year and a half, his brother Raul, has been defacto leader, and is Castro’s designated successor.