NICOSIA, Cyprus – On a small island like Cyprus, it’s comforting to see the government hastening to reassure the population that there is no need to panic about swine flu and show precautions they have already taken to deal with a possible outbreak, even though officials have yet to diagnose single case here.  

Cyprus depends on tourism and agriculture for its economic survival; a pandemic of swine flu would be disastrous for both sectors.

After the weekend news that swine flu had killed dozens of people in Mexico, and that cases had since been reported in the United States and Europe, the Cyprus Health Ministry convened an emergency meeting of microbiologists, epidemiologists and officials from pharmaceutical services to coordinate action and determine the readiness of emergency health services throughout the island.

“The fact that cases have been reported in Europe is worrying,” said Health Minister Christos Patsalides. “This obliges everyone in Europe to increase their measures to deal with swine flu.”

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ISLAMABAD – After weeks of consolidating their control over large areas of the Northwest Frontier Province, the Taliban are in retreat.

On Friday, Maulana Fazullah, the firebrand Taliban boss in the Swat Valley, ordered his most trusted military chief, Commander Fateh, to leave Buner, a neighboring valley that Fateh seized on Monday.

The Pakistani authorities warned the militants on Thursday that they were ready to remove them by force if they did not lay down their arms and abide by a peace agreement hammered out in February.

Mohammad Sajjad / AP

Taliban militants hold their weapons outside a mosque in Daggar, Buner’s main town on Thursday.

 
According to the deal, the government ceded power to the Taliban in the Swat Valley and allowed them to impose Islamic law in the area in return for a cease-fire – ending two years of on and off military operations there.

But last weekend at a large gathering of supporters in the valley, the Taliban announced they would not lay down their arms and openly challenged the state. They declared that democracy was un-Islamic and called for harsh Islamic laws, known as sharia, to replace Pakistan’s constitution.

The next day, they began their advance into Buner. That valley’s proximity to the capital, Islamabad, just 70 miles and a five-hour drive away, sounded alarm bells in Washington.
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HAVANA – President Barack Obama may have charmed audiences all around the world and been all smiles with strongmen such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez – but don’t count Fidel Castro as one of his fans.

In his latest blog, posted last evening, the former Cuban president took issue with a number of remarks Obama made during a Sunday news conference at the close of the Summit of the Americas.

Castro accused the president of “arrogance” and “superficiality” while also criticizing his support of Washington’s trade embargo on the island, stating Obama has now made the “failed” policy “his own.”

The 82-year-old Castro also said that Obama had “interpreted badly” statements and supposed signals of conciliation from his brother Raúl, now president, who recently remarked that his government was willing to discuss “everything” with the Obama administration, including “human rights, press freedoms and political prisoners.”

Javier Galeano / AP

An employee of the Defense of the Revolution Committee reads an issue of the Cuban newspaper Granma next to an image of Fidel Castro in Havana on Wednesday.

The apparent openness of that statement, made last Thursday during a meeting of leftist leaders in Venezuela, sparked speculation both in the United States and here in Cuba that the two adversaries could be heading to the negotiating table.  

Obama even characterized Raúl Castro’s remarks as an “advance” and underscored that he was encouraged by them.

But he then called on Havana to free political prisoners and to slash the official exchange rate of the U.S. dollar on family remittances.

And that clearly riled Fidel Castro.
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