HAVANA — Fidel Castro lampooned U.S. elections Saturday as corrupted by corporate money aimed at “brainwashing” the few Americans who still bother to go to the polls.
The Cuban leader’s comments came a day before the communist-run island holds municipal elections.
Fidel Castro trumpeted his country’s multitiered election cycle as “the antithesis of those held in the United States.” “Being very rich or having the support of lot of money is what matters the most there,” he wrote Saturday in the Communist Party newspaper Granma. The money is spent on “brainwashing and the creation of conditioned reflexes,” he added.
Castro has not been seen in public since undergoing emergency surgery and ceding power to his brother in July 2006.
China’s vice president steps down
BEIJING — China’s politically powerful Vice President Zeng Qinghong and two others stepped down today amid a reshuffling of the Communist Party leadership, removing from office a rival to President Hu Jintao.
Closing out a week-long party congress, delegates selected a new Central Committee, a body that approves leadership positions and sets broad policy goals, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Two other members of the Standing Committee, the powerful body that runs China, also stepped aside. No reason was given, but all three were either over or near the party’s preferred but not mandatory retirement age.
Their departure from the leadership, especially that of Zeng, appears to be a boost for Hu, who is all but certain to be given a second five-year term as party leader.
Pet owners sue over animals’ demise
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — Pet owners whose dogs and cats were thrown to their deaths from a bridge have filed a $22.5 million lawsuit against the company that took the animals away and others they claimed were involved.
The claim was filed in federal court Friday against Puerto Rico’s public housing director, the municipality of Barceloneta, its mayor, the owner of a private animal control company and several others.
The 45 plaintiffs’ pets were snatched Oct. 8 when local authorities enforced a no-pet rule in public housing.
Hamas, Fatah trade fire
GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP — Hamas police and a powerful clan allied with the rival Fatah movement traded automatic fire Saturday, killing a young man and a boy on the fourth day of some of the heaviest internal fighting since the Islamic militants seized Gaza.
Saturday’s deaths brought to six the number of people killed since the standoff started over a police demand that the Hilles clan hand over a government-issued car.
Hamas said it was determined to impose order and was setting an example.
