In the News

WORLD

WASHINGTON – Cuban President Fidel Castro, ailing and out of sight, has been meeting with a trickle of international guests in recent months, a U.S. government official said Tuesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive situation with Cuba, declined to say with whom Castro was meeting. But the meetings, generally with visitors from Latin America, suggest he may be setting the stage for a transition of power that he hopes will protect the government he has built over four decades.

In a review of global threats last week, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said that Castro and his brother Raul, who has taken over as Cuba’s temporary leader, are trying to create a “soft landing” during the transfer of control.

NATION

WASHINGTON – A Senate resolution opposing President Bush’s war plan on Iraq put the White House and Republican leaders on the defensive Wednesday.

The administration seemed to hint that the effort might somehow be of assistance to terrorists. They also herded GOP skeptics to the White House, where they tried to allay the concerns of Republican lawmakers including Sens. John Warner of Virginia, Sam Brownback of Kansas, Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Susan Collins of Maine.

“What message does Congress intend to give?” White House spokesman Tony Snow asked. “And who does it think the audience is? Is the audience merely the president? Is it the voting American public or, in an age of instant communication, is it also al-Qaida?”

Initially announced by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and possible 2008 presidential candidates Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., the non-binding resolution states that “escalating the United States military force presence in Iraq” is not in the national interest. Bush has proposed adding 21,500 U.S. troops to the roughly 132,000 already in the country. Moderate Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, also signed on.

Hagel’s and Snowe’s support for the measure is a major victory for Democrats, who believe their support will open the door for other Republicans to jump on board and challenge Bush.

STATE&LOCAL

RICHMOND – A state legislator’s statement that black people “should get over” slavery and questioning whether Jews should apologize “for killing Christ” caused furious and tearful denunciations Tuesday before stunned lawmakers.

Delegate Frank D. Hargrove, in defending himself, told one of his critics, a delegate whose Jewish ancestors immigrated from Nazi-occupied Poland, that “your skin is a little too thin.”

Hargrove, R-Hanover, in an interview published Tuesday in The Daily Progress of Charlottesville, voiced opposition to a measure apologizing on behalf of the state to the descendants of slaves.

Hargrove said slavery ended nearly 140 years ago with the Civil War.

“I personally think that our black citizens should get over it,” Hargrove said. “Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?”

Black House of Delegates members swiftly denounced the comments Hargrove made on the holiday commemorating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and on the same grounds where the Confederate Congress met.

“When somebody tells me I should just get over slavery I can only express my emotion by projecting that I am appalled, absolutely appalled,” said Delegate Dwight C. Jones, D-Richmond, head of the Legislative Black Caucus.