This July 30 Chicago Tribune story is suddenly much more relevant, since Fidel ceded executive powers—just one day after it appeared! The existence of groups like Elizardo Sanchez' Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation (about which more below) is anathema to the dogmatists on either side of the Havana-Washington/Miami divide.

U.S. aid unproductive, some Castro foes say
HAVANA - The Bush administration's plans to send an additional $80 million over the next two years to support Cuba's struggling opposition movement is being criticized by the very people the money is intended to help.

A story on new international interest in Cuba's offshore oil rights made the front page of the New York Times in May. But very interesting that the London Times gives it similar top billing Aug. 5, just as Fidel has (ostensibly temporarily) stepped down, ceding executive powers to his younger brother and security chief Raul for the first time since 1959.

Cuban oil grab sparks row in US over embargo of near neighbour
As the Spanish, Chinese and Canadians move in on Cuba's reserves, US politicians are fighting over what their response should be

The undiscriminating nature of aerial warfare is producing some surreal ironies in the Israel-Lebanon mess. As we have noted, Israel appears to be loaning military support to Iraqi Kurds due to mutual enmity for the Arabs, leading Arabs and Turks alike to increasingly view Kurdish separatism as a Jewish conspiracy. Yet the latest Israeli air strike on Lebanon's Bekaa Valley wiped out a bunch of Syrian Kurdish migrant fruit pickers. From Reuters, Aug. 4:

From La Jornada, Aug. 1, via Chiapas95 (our translation):

Guerilla groups will "not permit the imposition"

Chilpancingo, Guerrero, July 31 -- The guerilla organizations Revolutionary Workers Command "Mexico Barbaro"; the Comando Jaramillista Morelense "May 23"; the Popular Revolutionary Command "Fatherland is First", and the Democratic Revolutionary Tendency-Army of the People called for the Mexican people to "not permit the conservative and reactionary right to impose a spurious president, and not accept, under any circumstances, the negation and mockery of the popular will as expressed at the ballot boxes. Do not even diminish your protests!" The communique warned: "if in spite of everything the men of power and money succeed in consumating the usurpation of the government of the Republic, let there be no doubt: sooner rather than later, they will face the consequences!"

A communique in support of prisoners from the village of San Salvador Atenco, being held at Santiaguito prison in Mexico state. Via Chiapas95, Aug. 1 (our translation):

SANTIAGUITO PRISONERS DENOUNCE ATTACK BY GUARD AGAINST POLITICAL PRISONER

published by Radio Pacheco

Prisoners' letter, July 31
The aggression has begun again, this time against our companero David Medina Neri, a 42-year old man who was beaten by a guard today. Supposedly it's the guards' job to protect us from the aggression of other inmates, but now it turns out that the blows we receive come from them. Our companero David is sick and we know that any sickness hits people harder as they get older. He was lying down because he had the flu and a fever when the guy began kicking his right leg that had been hurting a few days before. He jerked him up and shoved him out of the cell, cursing at him all the while. The guard was told that we who were arrested at Atenco have a protective order that forbids that kind of treatment. It had happened once before when they tried to take our companero Arturo Sanchez Romero's shoes. The guard began to yell at us that he didn't give a shit about Atenco or protective orders, that they were just bullshit. Some of the companeros began to argue with him about what he was doing and he left as soon as he could.

From the Spanish news service EFE via Chiapas95, Aug. 1 (our translation):

Women of the Popular Assembly of the State of Oaxaca (APPO) today took by force the installations of the [state-owned] Oaxacan Television and Radio Corporation, which operates one television channel and two radio stations, detaining for several hours some 80 workers.

We hate to say it, but we sure called this one. Now to all of you who told us the anti-Semitism in The Passion of Christ was just a product of our paranoid imaginations—how would you like your crow prepared? We hate censorship, but it is hard not to be releived that the world will be spared this hypocritical exercise, which was designed purely to allow a Jew-hater deniability. Now maybe he will unleash an anti-Mexican tirade next, so we can be similarly spared this cultural vampire's upcoming film in the Maya language. From Stuff.co, Aug. 2:

We have noted a growing number of Turkish writers to face prosecution for their words. The latest is, especially perversely, charged in connection with a work of fiction. From The Guardian, July 24:

In Istanbul, a writer awaits her day in court
Bestselling novelist Elif Shafak is the latest writer to face trial for "insulting Turkishness". She tells Richard Lea about her work, the charges that have been brought against her, and how the Turkish language has become a battleground.