One would have thought--I certainly did--that there would be some movement in Cuba since 1989. Instead, the country remains locked in Brezhnevite stasis. One would think that the second and third ranks under Castro would have taken some action long before now: after all, the longer the current system lasts, the worst their chances when Castro finally becomes incapacitated. The Economist: Cuba's economy: The disaster is now "irrevocable" ONE more European firm suspended operations in Cuba recently. The company, a building firm working in partnership with the Cuban government, found that its partner was dipping into company funds and that workers were selling materials on the black market. Another European company wants to be available to serve its customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week; but company cars, easily identifiable by their licence plates, may be used only at certain times. No es facil, as people say all the time in Cuba. It's not easy for foreigners to do business here. Cuba, out of necessity, has allowed capitalism into its socialist system. But it then keeps capitalism down, as it feels it must, with a mass of complex and sometimes contradictory rules and regulations. Just when foreigners find...

Bush bewildered [Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso] with the question "Do you have blacks, too?"

Did the U.S. Encourage the Failed Coup in Venezuela Because the National Security Council Is Staffed by McCarthyite Nutboys? With a lead in like that, you certainly expect the answer to be, "Yes." And the answer is, "Probably."