Obama Nobel reflects badly on his predecessors: Castro

October 10th, 2009 Fidel Castro calls Obama Nobel positive measureHAVANA — Count Fidel Castro among those in favor of the Norwegian Nobel Committee's controversial choice of U.S. President Barack Obama for the Nobel Peace prize.

October 9th, 2009 OSLO - United States President Barack Obama has been surprisingly given the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 for his extraordinary efforts in strengthening international diplomacy and for taking landmark initiatives to create a nuclear-free world. Announcing the award here, an official of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said that Obama was yet to be informed about the award, and would receive the award on December 10 this year.

September 24th, 2009 HAVANA - Cuban leader Fidel Castro has praised US President Barack Obama for taking a "courageous" stand on climate change, but added it was not right that Obama tried to make people believe that humanity could survive under the laws of capitalism. Castro wrote in a commentary, titled "El Obama serio" (The Serious Obama) and published by state media Wednesday, that the US president's address at the UN Tuesday was a "courageous gesture" that showed his concern about climate change.

September 4th, 2009 Photo shows Fidel Castro outside, in dress shirtHAVANA — Cuban state media have released a second recent photo showing Fidel Castro in regular civilian clothing instead of the track suits that he commonly wore after falling ill in July 2006. In the picture, the 83-year-old Castro is shaking hands with the visiting head of the Chinese parliament in the walled backyard of an undisclosed home.

August 23rd, 2009 Healthy looking Fidel Castro meets Ecuador leaderHAVANA — Cuba's Communist Youth newspaper is showing a photo of a healthier-looking Fidel Castro talking with the visiting Ecuadorean president. Sunday's photo in Juventud Rebelde shows the 83-year-old Castro wearing a white shirt instead of the sports apparel he has worn in recent photos.

April 29th, 2009 Castro: Onus not on Cuba for US better relationsHAVANA — Raul Castro has dismissed Barack Obama's policy changes toward Cuba as "minimal" and says it is up to the U.S. — not Cuba — to do more to improve relations.

April 23rd, 2009 HAVANA - Former Cuban president Fidel Castro has said that US President Barack Obama's Cuba policy will fare as badly as that of the previous White House occupants if he does not end Washington's 47-year-old economic embargo against the communist country. 'Must we wait so many years for their blockade to be suspended? He (Obama) didn't invent it, but he made it his own just like 10 other presidents of the United States.

April 9th, 2009 HAVANA - Former Cuban president Fidel Castro has said he believes US President Barack Obama wants to improve relations with Cuba, but the US political reality will not make that possible. Castro said in an article that when one of the lawmakers, Bobby Rush, told him that Obama would need help from Cuba to end the five-decade chill in US-Cuban ties, he replied by observing 'that the objective realities' of the US are 'stronger than Obama's sincere intentions'.

February 9th, 2009 HAVANA - Former Cuban president Fidel Castro has said that Barack Obama is incapable of solving the problems faced by the US. In his Monday newspaper column, Reflections, Castro also suggested that other countries would be the real victims of the US financial crisis.

February 9th, 2009 HAVANA - Former Cuban president Fidel Castro has said Barack Obama and his team would not be able to solve the economic problems faced by the US. Castro said that Obama, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and 'all of the talented politicians and economists they have brought together would not suffice to solve the growing problems of the American capitalist society'.

February 6th, 2009 HAVANA - Former Cuban president Fidel Castro has criticised US President Barack Obama saying his 'politics is losing virginity', the EFE news agency reported Saturday. 'Sooner rather than later, Obama's politics are losing their virginity,' he said in his article titled 'Reflection' published in official media Friday.

February 6th, 2009 HAVANA - Cuban leader Fidel Castro has said that US President Barack Obama's politics was 'losing its virginity', Spanish news agency EFE reported Saturday. In the third article in two weeks criticising the actions of the new US president, Cuba's ex-president commented on White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's statement that 'what interests president Obama is the Cuban-American community'.

January 29th, 2009 HAVANA - Cuba will not grant any political concessions to the US for a possible return of the Guantanamo Bay naval base, the country's ailing revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has said. In an column titled 'Deciphering the thought of the new US president', posted on the government-run cubadebate.cu website, Castro wrote that US President Barack Obama had to return the territory without any conditions attached.

January 22nd, 2009 HAVANA - Ailing Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has called new US President Barack Obama a 'honest' person with good intentions, but expressed doubt whether he could transform those into action. The former Cuban president said Obama's inaugural speech as 'impressive' in a comparative article 'Reflection' recounting Castro's conversation Wednesday with visiting Argentine head of state Cristina Fernandez, EFE news agency reported Friday.

January 21st, 2009 HAVANA - Ailing Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro received visiting Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner here, Cuban news agency Prensa Latina reported Thursday. The 82-year-old leader, who has permanently relinquished rule to his brother, Raul Castro, has been rarely seen in public since suffering from a serious health crisis in 2006.