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Castro looks better in visit from Chavez

By TIMES WIRES
Published September 2, 2006

HAVANA - Cuban leader Fidel Castro, looking notably better than he did when last seen almost three weeks ago, happily greeted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during a brief visit aired on state television Friday.

"Brother!" the 80-year-old Castro said from his sickbed, his face lighting up as Chavez entered the room Friday where he was recuperating and gave him a warm embrace.

"Gentleman of the heroic resistance!" the Venezuelan president responded with a smile to his good friend and ally.

"What joy!" Castro said after sitting up on his bed. "A million thanks!"

Chavez has visited Castro three times since the Cuban leader announced on July 31 that he had undergone intestinal surgery and was provisionally ceding power to his brother, Raul Castro, the defense minister.

The specifics of Castro's ailment and the nature of his surgery have been treated as a state secret.

Recovered masterpieces damaged but repairable

OSLO, Norway - The Edvard Munch masterpieces The Scream and Madonna suffered minor damage after being stolen by masked gunmen in August 2004, but it can be repaired, museum officials said Friday.

Police remained tight-lipped over how they recovered the national treasures Thursday.

Munch Museum director Ingebjoerg Ydstie said The Scream had been banged hard in one corner and Madonna had a roughly one-inch hole and some loose paint.

"Our skilled conservators will be able to repair the damage," she said.

Iran deadline gone, E.U. still sticks with diplomacy

LAPPEENRANTA, Finland - Despite mounting U.S. pressure for sanctions against Iran, the European Union said Friday it was too early to punish Tehran for its failure to halt uranium enrichment by the U.N. Security Council's Thursday deadline.

The call for renewed diplomacy came as Iran's president vowed never to give up a nuclear program that he said is being misrepresented by the West.

"This is not the time or place" for sanctions, Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said after a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers. "For the EU, diplomacy remains the No. 1 way forward."

[Last modified September 2, 2006, 01:24:55]