John McCain warned today that the Republican Convention, set for next week in St.Paul, MN may have to be postponed due to Hurricane Gustav, which is currently pwning Cuba and on track to hit the Gulf Coast…you guessed it, right around the time McCain will be accepting his nomination. I’m not sayin, I’m just sayin…

579 lung cancer patients are in the advanced testing stage of a vaccine developed by Cuban scientists this week. The vaccine is the first of its kind to be registered and tested in the world. While it doesn’t actually save victims of the disease, it is purported to provide an average of 4 - 5 months of life past expected. Peep it:

Gisela Gonzalez at the Havana Molecular Immunological Center, where the unveiling was held, said that research on the Cimavax EGF vaccine began in 1992, with the first clinical test in 1995.

It is the first registered vaccine in the world designed to battle lung cancer, said Gonzalez, who heads the medical team that developed the compound.

The vaccine, based on two proteins, triggers an immune response from the victim’s body and has no side effects, Gonzalez said.

The research team’s director of clinical investigations, Tania Crombet, said that the vaccine serves as a compliment to conventional methods like chemotherapy and radiotherapy, allowing cancer victims to live between four and five months longer, and improves their breathing and decreases their pain.

The vaccine is available in Cuba, and will be commercialized in Latin America, starting in Peru, Gonzalez said.

Advanced tests are currently underway with 579 lung cancer victims at 18 Cuban hospitals. Other tests were carried out in Canada, Britain, while tests are scheduled in Malaysia, Peru, and China, Gonzalez added.

In Buenos Aires, an Argentine-Cuban consortium announced in February that a study of the Cuban vaccine is underway involving more than 700 patients in six countries, including India and Singapore.

[The following blog is actually, in reality, a column that was printed in Synthesis Weekly on Tuesday, 5/27. It was written by Bob Howard, who can be reached at madbob@madbob.com]

Hearts and Minds

The Incredible Terrible Saga of Sami al-Hajj: During the first phase of Bush’s “War on Terror,” a host of suspected dissidents were rounded up and sent to the US military’s secretive detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Guantanamo Bay is US territory leased from Cuba; though the Cuban government has never cashed the US checks for that land. The reason a military prison was constructed and harbored in that unlikely location is because attorneys for the Bush administration felt that the legal status of Guantanamo Bay was ambiguous and as such prisoners held there would not be subject to the normal regulations that govern the capture, holding and interrogation of foreign POWs. As a result of this legal ambiguity, Guantanamo has been a haven for incredible abuse of both the prisoners and the legal system in general.

One of the early stated goals in the “War on Terror” was to win the “hearts and minds” of the Afghani, Iraqi, and by extension, the citizens of the whole Middle East. Now, I understand perfectly well that when you go to war there is going to be a lot of what they call “collateral damage” — meaning innocent civilians, women and children will be killed. It is an inevitable consequence of dropping bombs and shooting bullets. Collateral damage is one of those calculated risks. The bad guys are so bad that it behooves us in the long run to blow up civilians to get to them. I don’t agree with the logic, but I understand it.
But every so often another story pops up that makes me shake my head and say, “Really? That’s how we’re going about winning the hearts and minds of the people whose countries we are invading?” I just learned the details of one of these stories. It involves a man named Sami al-Hajj who has spent the last six years at Guantanamo Bay. You might ask what al-Hajj’s crime was? It turns out that he was captured because he was a cameraman for Al Jazeera, the most popular Arab-based news outlet in the world. The US at the time was working under the assumption that Al Jazeera was actually in cahoots with Al Qaeda and they interrogated al-Hajj on dozens of separate occasions in order to try and get him to confess this link. He never would because, according to al-Hajj, there is no link between Al Qaeda and Al Jazeera.

[righteous indignation to follow the jump.] (more…)

He never got his face on a popular T-shirt, but Fidel Castro is unquestionably the most iconic of the world’s communists. The 81-year old leader of Cuba — having suffered health problems since July 2006 — has officially resigned his position as president. His brother, Raul Castro, has been running the country since Fidel fell ill and is expected to be officially appointed as successor. In fact, Fidel hasn’t even been seen in public since he underwent intestinal surgery on July 31, 2006. According to one Cuban exile living in Spain:

We haven’t seen the Cuban dictator in the flesh since he withdrew through illness. This leads me to think that he may have died already.

The announcement was made overnight, and come dawn, most Cubans were still unaware that Castro had stepped down. AP reports that it wasn’t until 5AM that the announcement was made on the radio, hours after it had been posted online.

As controversial as he is charismatic, Castro ruled Cuba since 1959. Reaction to the news, as you’d expect, is radically mixed.

“It is like losing a father,” said Luis Conte, an elderly museum watchman. Or “like a marriage — a very long one that is over.”

Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush is stoked about the prospect of turning the nearby island nation into America’s tropical playground once again, saying he hoped to “help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of liberty.” For a price of course. Regardless of what it means for Cuba’s future, the landscape of international politics has certainly become a little less interesting.

Everyones favorite dictator, Fidel Castro, has hinted that he may soon retire, though he left no indication as to whom he would place in charge.

He wishes to retain a strong influence on the young leaders of Cuba until his death, meaning things probably won’t change too much until then.

Castro has been in power since 1959, and has gained praised for Cuba’s health care system, though their economy is in shambles (largely due to an embargo with the US).

***Side note, Castro’s autobiography is a really great read.

Oh, also: