■ Honduras
Castro could return soon
Fidel Castro "could return to work soon," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said during a visit to Honduras on Thursday. Perez Roque and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a close friend of Castro who visited the communist leader recently in Cuba, have said repeatedly that Castro is recovering well after a complicated gastrointestinal surgery in July. The foreign minister's comments follow a growing number of positive assessments about Castro's health from officials and family members.
■ United States
Sex offender law proposed
Lawmakers in Ohio said on Wednesday they want to force convicted sex offenders to use a fluorescent-green license plate on their cars so they can be easily identified. A Republican and a Democrat in the state legislature in Columbus have joined forces to propose the law, which echoes measures in several US states that require convicted drunken drivers to use a yellow, pink or red plate on their cars. "The license plate will make the most egregious sex offenders easily identifiable," state Democratic Representative Michael DeBose said in a statement. Police said the green plates would allow them to track sex offenders, who are already required to register with the local sheriff's office and are prohibited from living within 305m of a school.
■ Paraguay
Dengue emergency declared
A state of emergency has been declared following a wave of dengue fever cases as concerns over the mosquito-borne illness rise across Latin America. Paraguayan health officials have reported some 14,000 cases of the disease this year. Opposition lawmakers accuse the government of drastically underestimating the outbreak. "The statistics that are being given out should be multiplied tenfold," opposition spokesman Anibal Carrillo said on Thursday, adding he believes more than 130,000 cases have gone unreported because many poor Paraguayans cannot afford doctors' fees. President Nicanor Duarte said he was allotting funds to fumigate breeding areas for the disease-spreading aedes aegypti mosquito, and signed a decree this week declaring a 60-day emergency.
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