Today's Top 5:
1. Fidel Castro Resigns as Cuba’s President (Yahoo News)
2. Swiss Police Recover Stolen Masterpieces (CNN)
3. Skateboard-Wielding Customers Whack, Catch Robbery Suspect
(Local6.com)
4. Top Mafia Boss Known as "The Supreme One" Captured in Police
Raid After 20-year Hunt (Daily Mail)
5. Pregnant Tigress Rescued After Climbing Palm Tree in Bengal Village
(Yahoo India)
Honorable Mention:
Ballsy Snake Released After Surgery (The Australian News)
1. Fidel Castro Resigns as Cuba’s President
AP - Tue Feb 19, 8:40 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080219/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/fidel_castro
HAVANA - An ailing, 81-year-old Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president Tuesday after nearly a half-century in power, saying he will not accept a new term when parliament meets Sunday.
The end of Castro's rule — the longest in the world for a head of government — frees his 76-year-old brother Raul to implement reforms he has hinted at since taking over as acting president when Fidel Castro fell ill in July 2006. President Bush said he hopes the resignation signals the beginning of a democratic transition.
"My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath," Castro wrote in a letter published Tuesday in the online edition of the Communist Party daily Granma. But, he wrote, "it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer."
In the pre-dawn hours, most Cubans were unaware of Castro's message, and Havana's streets were quiet. It wasn't until 5 a.m., several hours after Castro's message was posted on the internet, that official radio began reading the missive to early risers.
By sunrise, most people headed to work in Havana seemed to have heard the news, which they appeared to accept without obvious signs of emotion. There were no tears or smiles as Cubans went about their usual business.
"He will continue to be my commander in chief, he will continue to be my president," said Miriam, a 50-year-old boat worker waiting for the bus to Havana port. "But I'm not sad because he isn't leaving, and after 49 years he is finally resting a bit."
Castro temporarily ceded his powers to his brother on July 31, 2006, when he announced that he had undergone intestinal surgery. Since then, the elder Castro has not been seen in public, appearing only sporadically in official photographs and videotapes and publishing dense essays about mostly international themes as his younger brother has consolidated his rule.
There had been widespread speculation about whether Castro would continue as president when the new National Assembly meets Sunday to pick the country's top leadership. Castro has been Cuba's unchallenged leader since 1959 — monarchs excepted, he was the world's longest ruling head of state.
Castro said Cuban officials had wanted him to remain in power after his surgery.
"It was an uncomfortable situation for me vis-a-vis an adversary that had done everything possible to get rid of me, and I felt reluctant to comply," he said in a reference to the United States.
Castro remains a member of parliament and is likely to be elected to the 31-member Council of State on Sunday, though he will no longer be its president. Raul Castro's wife, Vilma Espin, maintained her council seat until her death last year even though she was too sick to attend meetings for many months.
Castro also retains his powerful post as first secretary of Cuba's Communist Party. The party leadership posts generally are renewed at party congresses, and the last one was held in 1997.
The resignation opens the path for Raul Castro's succession to the presidency, and the full autonomy he has lacked in leading a caretaker government. The younger Castro has raised expectations among Cubans for modest economic and other reforms, stating last year that the country requires unspecified "structural changes" and acknowledging that government wages that average about $19 a month do not satisfy basic needs.
As first vice president of Cuba's Council of State, Raul Castro was his brother's constitutionally designated successor and appears to be a shoo-in for the presidential post when the council meets Sunday. More uncertain is who will be chosen as Raul's new successor, although 56-year-old council Vice President Carlos Lage, who is Cuba's de facto prime minister, is a strong possibility.
"Raul is also old," allowed Isabel, a 61-year-old Havana street sweeper, who listened to Castro's message being read on state radio with other fellow workers. "As a Cuban, I am thinking that Carlos Lage, or (Foreign Minister) Felipe Perez Roque, or another younger person with new eyes" could follow the younger Castro brother, she added.
Bush, traveling in Rwanda, pledged to "help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of liberty."
"The international community should work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions that are necessary for democracy," he said. "Eventually, this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections — and I mean free, and I mean fair — not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as true democracy."
The United States built a detailed plan in 2005 for American assistance to ensure a democratic transition on the island of 11.2 million people after Castro's death. But Cuban officials have insisted that the island's socialist political and economic systems will outlive Castro.
"The adversary to be defeated is extremely strong," Castro wrote Tuesday. "However, we have been able to keep it at bay for half a century."
Castro rose to power on New Year's Day 1959 and reshaped Cuba into a communist state 90 miles from U.S. shores. The fiery guerrilla leader survived assassination attempts, a CIA-backed invasion and a missile crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Ten U.S. administrations tried to topple him, most famously in the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961.
His ironclad rule ensured Cuba remained communist long after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe.
Castro's supporters admired his ability to provide a high level of health care and education for citizens while remaining fully independent of the United States. His detractors called him a dictator whose totalitarian government systematically denied individual freedoms and civil liberties such as speech, movement and assembly.
The United States was the first country to recognize Castro's government, but the countries soon clashed as Castro seized American property and invited Soviet aid.
On April 16, 1961, Castro declared his revolution to be socialist. A day later, he defeated the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion. The United States squeezed Cuba's economy and the CIA plotted to kill Castro. Hostility reached its peak with the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
The collapse of the Soviet Union sent Cuba into economic crisis, but the economy recovered in the late 1990s with a tourism boom.
2. Swiss Police Recover Stolen Masterpieces
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/02/19/art.theft/index.html
Updated1 hour, 14 minutes ago
(CNN) -- Police in Switzerland have recovered artworks stolen earlier this month in a daring heist at a Zurich museum, Geneva police said Tuesday.
The police could not say whether some or all of the four Impressionist masterpieces were recovered. A news conference was planned later in the day with more details.
The four paintings are worth a total of about $163 million (180 million Swiss francs).
Police said three masked men stole the paintings in a "spectacular" heist February 11 at the E.G Buhrle Collection -- among the finest collections of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art in the world.
One of the men threatened personnel at the museum's front door with a pistol and forced them to the ground, police said, while the other two men went into an exhibition room and stole four oil paintings by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.
Afterward, the three men loaded the paintings -- Monet's "Poppies near Vetheuil," Degas' "Count Lepic and his Daughters," van Gogh's "Blossoming Chestnut Branches" and Cezanne's "Boy in a Red Vest" -- into a white car parked in front of the museum and then drove off, police said.
A reward of $91,000 (100,00 Swiss francs) was posted for information leading to the return of the paintings, police said.
The Swiss art heist followed the recent theft in Switzerland of two paintings by Pablo Picasso, said Bjoern Quellenberg, a spokesman for the Kunsthaus, a major art museum in Zurich.
The director of the Kunsthaus serves on the E.G. Buhrle private art foundation's council, Quellenberg said.
In that theft, thieves stole the 1962 "Tete de Cheval" ("Horse's Head") and the 1944 "Verre et Pichet" ("Glass and Pitcher") by Picasso. They were on loan from a German museum and valued at $4.5 million when they were stolen February 6, according to news reports.
3. Skateboard-Wielding Customers Whack, Catch Robbery Suspect
'I Raised My Skateboard And Came Down On His Head,' Says Skateboarder
POSTED: 6:50 am EST February 19, 2008
UPDATED: 8:26 am EST February 19, 2008
http://www.local6.com/news/15339414/detail.html
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Some skateboarding teens standing in line at a convenience store used their boards to pummel and capture a 46-year-old man trying to rob a convenience store, police said.
Investigators said Richard Parris entered the Kangaroo convenience store located on A1A in Daytona and tried to grab cash out of a register Monday night.
Skateboarder Clinton Pomares and his friends said they took action, hitting the culprit several times in the head with the boards.
"I raised my skateboard over my head and just came down on his head as hard as I possibly could," Pomares said.
"I was like, 'Oh my God,'" skateboarder Michael Dodd said.
Officers said the teens then cornered the injured culprit and held him until police arrived.
Parris was transported to Halifax Medical Center at last check.
Local 6 reported that his criminal history spans three decades and he had just been released from prison before Monday night's incident.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
4. Top Mafia boss known as 'The Supreme One' captured in police raid after 20-year hunt
Last updated at 13:22pm on 19th February 2008
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=516035&in_page_id=1811
Police in the southern Italian region of Calabria last night captured the top boss of a powerful Mafia syndicate in an "extraordinary" operation.
Pasquale Condello, 57, a fugitive for 20 years, was arrested in an apartment in the centre of regional capital Reggio Calabria, police said.
There was a pistol in the residence, but he offered no resistance.
Pasquale Condello is escorted to a waiting helicopter by masked police officers after his arrest in Calabria
"It is the latest, extraordinary operation against organised crime," Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said in a statement. "Pasquale Condello was the No. 1 boss of the 'ndrangheta."
Condello was known as "The Supreme One" for his role at the top of the crime syndicate.
Before his capture, Condello had been No. 2 on the police list of Italy's most dangerous fugitives.
An undated picture of a much younger Pasquale Condello, circulated by Italian police
Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Alberto Cisterno said that the Condello crime clan was one of the most "ferocious" 'ndrangheta families and that Condello had received several life prison terms for a series of crimes.
The 'ndrangheta in recent years has eclipsed the Sicilian Mafia in power and reach, especially in running cocaine trafficking between Colombia and Europe, investigators have said.
While the 'ndrangheta increased its power, the Sicilian mob suffered harsh blows with the arrest of several top bosses in the last years, sometimes with the aid of information from turncoats.
But few turncoats have emerged in the 'ndrangheta, based mainly on family ties.
The 'ndrangheta made headlines in Europe last summer when six young Italians were gunned down after eating in a pizzeria in Germany.
Condello was "one of the last bosses still on the loose," Reggio Calabria prosecutor Francesco Mollace said.
He had prosecuted Condello for the 1987 slaying of a former head of the Italian state railways.
Condello, described by prosecutors as the mastermind, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Investigators have described Condello as having run a network of extortion and kickbacks on public works contracts, as well as having taken control of contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds to build water purifiers in some Calabrian towns
5. Pregnant Tigress Rescued After Climbing Palm Tree in Bengal Village
http://in.news.yahoo.com/indiaabroad/20080218/r_t_ians_nl_general/tnl-pregnant-tigress-climbs-palm-tree-in-b9e311f.html
Mon, Feb 18 03:52 PM
Kolkata, Feb 18 (IANS) After 14 hours of high drama, West Bengal forest officials Monday rescued a pregnant tigress which had strayed into a village outside the Sundarbans tiger habitat area and climbed a date palm tree.
The incident took place at Deulbari village near Kultali in South 24-Parganas district, about 250 km from the state capital.
'The tigress is now under observation and experts are examining her health. The tigress came out of the forest late Sunday night in search of a safe place as she is pregnant,' West Bengal Sundarbans Affairs Minister Kanti Ganguly said.
He said four villagers of Deulbari received minor injuries when they helped forest department officials catch the animal. One of them was taken to hospital.
The forest officials and police reached the spot and shot the tigress with tranquilliser guns. The officials also cordoned off the area with nets.
Finally, when the tigress fell asleep, it was rescued and sent back to the Sundarbans forest belt by a boat.
A live video footage of a TV channel shows villagers beating the pregnant tigress with sticks and throwing stones at her while catching her in the net.
'The incident took place outside the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve area. The forest department officials were there and rescued the animal,' Sundarbans Tiger Reserve (STR) director Niraj Singhal told IANS.
Sundarbans, which comprises about 10,000 sq km of marshlands and mangrove forests along the coast of the Bay of Bengal, is one of the last natural habitats of the tiger.
West Bengal principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) Atanu Raha said the tigress was successfully caught and sent back to the forest.
'The catching technique may vary depending upon the situation. The forest officials took the right steps in capturing the animal,' Raha said.
'The state government will bear the medical expenditure of the four villagers who were injured by the tigress during the rescue operation,' Minister Ganguly said.
According to the latest tiger census released by the government last week, the total number of tigers across the country stands at 1,411, a dramatic fall from 3,642 in the 2001-02 census.
While the latest census did not cover the Sundarbans, forest officials said there were 249 tigers in the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve and 279 in greater Sundarbans.
The number was based on pugmarks of individual tigers. But through an analysis of the same pugmarks, the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) said in July 2006 there were only 75 tigers left in the Sundarbans.
Honorable Mention:
Ballsy snake released after surgery
By Gabrielle Dunlevy
February 18, 2008
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23232198-5006786,00.html
A SNAKE that had four golf balls removed from its gut in a world-first operation will be released back into "the rough" today.Greg and Margaret Church discovered the 80cm-long carpet python on their northern New South Wales property in December. The couple had put golf balls in their hen house to coax a broody hen to lay, and blamed their grandchildren when the balls went missing. But then they found the very lumpy snake nearby, they put two and two together. The snake, nicknamed Augusta, had surgery at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast.After eight weeks' recuperation, it will be returned to the wild via the Church family's Nobbys Creek property. Mrs Church said she had a previous encounter with Augusta, when it ate a bat and became so fat that she had to help it slide out of a chicken wire fence. A nature lover, Mrs Church said she would be pleased to have the snake around again. "I'm glad we found him when we did," she told AAP. "My husband, who doesn't mind handling snakes, picked him up, and he could feel the golf balls inside. "It was a funny thing at the time." Reptile carer Sue Johnston, who housed Augusta after the operation, said it was a happy ending. "It's really good to see him go back to his own home again and hopefully he will be eating meals other than things like golf balls," she said. Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary raised $1401 for a new animal hospital through an online auction of the golf balls
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