Fidel Castro watched the US inauguration on television and said on Wednesday that US President Barack Obama seems “like a man who is absolutely sincere,” Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said after meeting with the ailing Cuban icon.
“Fidel believes in Obama,” Fernandez said.
The meeting with Fernandez, just before she ended a four-day visit to Cuba, dispelled persistent rumors that the 82-year-old Castro had suffered a stroke or lapsed into a coma in recent days.
“I was with Fidel about an hour or more,” she told reporters at the airport as she left. “We were chatting, conversing. He looked good.”
Hours later, Castro issued his own account of the meeting in a brief essay that called Obama “honest” in his ideas.
Fernandez said Castro wore the track suit tqhat has become his trademark since he fell ill in July 2006 and vanished from public view. A spokesman said the two met alone.
“He told me he had followed the inauguration of Barack Obama very closely, that he had watched the inauguration on television all day,” Fernandez said. “He had a very good perception of President Obama.”
Fernandez said Castro called Obama “a man who seems absolutely sincere,” who believes strongly in his ideas “and who hopefully can carry them out.”
Raul Castro, who took over the presidency from his brother 11 months ago, appeared earlier with Fernandez and scoffed at the rumors about his brother’s health.
“Do you think if he were really gravely ill that I’d be smiling here?” Raul Castro said. “Soon, I’m going to take a trip to Europe. You guys think I could leave here if Fidel were really in grave condition?”
Castro, 77, said his older brother spends his days “thinking a lot, reading a lot, advising me and helping me.”
“Now you know that Fidel is fine and not like the rumors around here,” Raul Castro said.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
ANGER: Unrest worsened after a taxi driver was killed by a police vehicle on Thursday, as protesters set alight government buildings across the nation Protests worsened overnight across major cities of Indonesia, far beyond the capital, Jakarta, as demonstrators defied Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s call for calm. The most serious unrest was seen in the eastern city of Makassar, while protests also unfolded in Bandung, Surabaya, Solo and Yogyakarta. By yesterday morning, crowds had dispersed in Jakarta. Troops patrolled the streets with tactical vehicles and helped civilians clear trash, although smoke was still rising in various protest sites. Three people died and five were injured in Makassar when protesters set fire to the regional parliament building during a plenary session on Friday evening, according to
STILL AFLOAT: Satellite images show that a Chinese ship damaged in a collision earlier this month was under repair on Hainan, but Beijing has not commented on the incident Australia, Canada and the Philippines on Wednesday deployed three warships and aircraft for drills against simulated aerial threats off a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese forces have used risky maneuvers to try to drive away Manila’s aircraft and ships. The Philippine military said the naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) were concluded safely, and it did not mention any encounter with China’s coast guard, navy or suspected militia ships, which have been closely guarding the uninhabited fishing atoll off northwestern Philippines for years. Chinese officials did not immediately issue any comment on the naval drills, but they
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying
RSS