Fidel steps down

FIDEL CASTRO (81) has announced that he will not be seeking the nomination of President of Cuba again later this week after 49 years in power.
Although Castro delegated his duties as to his brother, Raúl, in 2006 while he recovered from intestinal surgery, it is not clear who will succeed the first leader of socialist Cuba.
The Cuba Support Group Ireland wished Fidel well on the news on Tuesday of his retirement and called on the US Government “to now publicly declare that the war is over and that they will verifiably decommission their military, economic, diplomatic aggression against Cuba and normalise relations”.
 An Phoblacht will carry a feature story on Fidel Castro and Cuba in next week’s issue.

 

Pakistan president loses general election

PAKISTAN’S President Pervez Musharaff has said that he accepts the crushing general election defeat of his Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) party by the opposition led by the late Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party and Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N).
Musharaff has said he will work with the new parliament.

Campaign against cluster bombs meets in NZ

GOVERNMENTS, campaigners and survivors of cluster bombs from around the world are meeting in New Zealand this week to decide what a treaty banning cluster bombs will include.
It will result in a draft treaty text that countries will agree to negotiate in Dublin from 19-30 May 2008.
Campaigners warn that some governments are trying to weaken a treaty by calling for exemptions based on dubious technical fixes. The Cluster Munition Coalition is calling for the strongest possible ban on cluster bombs.

Afghan student appeals death sentence

THE international appeal on behalf of Pervez Kambaksh, the student journalist sentenced to death in Afghanistan for downloading a report on women’s rights, is putting pressure on the Afghan justice system.
An online appeal urging the British Government to put pressure on its Afghan Government ally to seek justice for the student journalist has been launched by the Independent newspaper in London.
The Afghanistan Supreme Court has now said the student’s appeal against the sentence will be held in “a very open court”. If all else fails, he can be pardoned by President Hamid Karzai.