Castro quietly marks his 87th birthday
HAVANA – Fidel Castro turned 87 behind closed doors Tuesday, with official tributes reminding Cubans that the clock is ticking on his revolutionary generation’s grip on power.
Castro stepped down as president after a near-fatal illness in 2006, and his successor, younger brother Raul, has said that his current term ending in 2018 will be his last, ostensibly ending nearly six decades of rule by the brothers.
Openly acknowledging to Cubans that change was inevitable, Raul Castro in February named Miguel Diaz-Canel, 53, as his deputy and heir apparent.
“You never talked about it until Raul said it recently. It was like something taboo,” Rey Nunez, a 42-year-old driver, said of generational leadership change. “But I think the institutions in this country are solid for whatever comes afterward.”
Brazil presses Kerry for details about spying
BRASILIA, Brazil – Brazil demanded answers Tuesday from the U.S. about National Security Agency spying in the country and warned that trust between the two nations would be damaged if U.S. explanations about the program were not satisfactory.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who was visiting Brasilia, sought to allay Brazil’s concerns about the program, saying the U.S. would work to provide answers to Brazil and other Latin American nations rankled by the NSA surveillance revealed by systems analyst Edward Snowden.
“We’re now facing a new type of challenge in our bilateral relationship,” Brazil Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said at a news conference. “We need to stop practices that violate sovereignty, ‘’ he said.
Rail company involved in crash loses license
TORONTO – Canada’s transportation agency has taken away the operating license of the U.S.-based rail company whose runaway oil train derailed and exploded in a Quebec town, killing 47 people.
The agency said Tuesday it is suspending the certificate of fitness for the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway and its Canadian subsidiary.
The agency said it is not satisfied that the troubled company, which has filed for bankruptcy since the July 6 disaster, has demonstrated that its third-party liability insurance is adequate for operations.
The company has blamed the train’s operator for failing to set enough hand brakes.
Associated Press
