In this July 11, 2014, Castro speaks during a meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin,
in Havana, Cuba. Social media around the world have been…
HAVANA — Social media around the world have been flooded with rumors of Fidel Castro's death, but there was no sign Friday that the reports were true,
even if the 88-year-old former Cuban leader has not been seen in public for months.
Similar speculation has swept across Cuban expatriate communities repeatedly over the decades,
particularly after a serious illness forced him to step down from duties as president in 2006, handing over leadership to his younger brother Raul.
The new wave was prompted in part by Fidel Castro's failure to comment after the U.S.
and Cuba declared on Dec. 17 that they would move to restore full diplomatic relations broken a half century ago.
The chatter appeared to pick up when some media noted Thursday that Castro had not been seen in public in a year.
He last appeared on Jan. 8, 2014, at an art exhibition in Havana, ending nine months out of public view.
The most recent official photographs of Castro came out of a private meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Aug. 21.
He was also photographed with the Chinese and Russian presidents in July. Castro was last heard from on Oct. 18, when he published an editorial about Ebola.
By Friday, Cuba-related Twitter accounts were ablaze with speculation,
fueled in large part by reports on news websites such as Diario de Cuba and Diario las Americas that Cuba had scheduled a news conference,
possibly to discuss Castro's health.
The rumors were further stoked when respected Italian newspaper Corriere Della
Sera reported on its website that Castro had died. It quickly pulled the report back, however.
Cuban officials told news media in Havana that no press conference had been called,
and there were no obvious signs of official preparations for mourning.
Blood, bodies, bullets turn heart of France into war zone
Pools of blood, shattered glass and bodies in the street --
this was the day when the heart of France turned into a war zone.
As commandos assaulted a Paris supermarket to free hostages Friday,
sending locals running in terror,
more special forces stormed a building in a small town nearby,
killing two Islamist hostage-takers.
The kind of violence that seemed unimaginable in the City of Light
concluded more than two days of terrible tension as police hunted
the Islamist gunmen who had massacred 12 people at a satirical weekly
magazine Wednesday.
In eastern Paris, police stormed the Jewish grocery store
where at least one gunman had earlier taken several people hostage.
Explosions rocked the neighbourhood --
one lighting up the shopfront in a fireball --
and shooting erupted as the commandos burst in.
"It's war!" screamed a mother as she dragged her daughter from the scene.
In the aftermath,
an AFP reporter saw a body sprawled by the cash till,
surrounded by broken glass. Blood was everywhere.
Another corpse was in a bodybag in the street,
one of five people killed, including the gunman.
Several others hostages fled from the firing into the arms of waiting police.
But four people were critically injured. Ambulances raced to the scene,
joining a jam of police vans and other emergency vehicles,
under the whirr of helicopters.
"There were police officers running in every direction,
" said Virginie Handani, 35, who lives two floors above the supermarket.
Moments before, other special forces assaulted a printers'
business in Dammartin-en-Goele outside the capital,
where the two main suspects in the Charlie Hebdo
massacre had holed up with one hostage.
Explosions thundered and smoke poured from the roof of the building.
The two brothers inside, who had led thousands of police on a
wild manhunt for more than 48 hours, ran out in a desperate
last stand and were gunned down. The hostage was saved.
- Final battle -
The fiery denouement came at the end of a day when
the abrupt arrival of huge numbers of elite police both in the
capital and in Dammartin-en-Goele made the likelihood
of a final battle appear inevitable.
"It happened very, very quickly.
We saw helicopters and suddenly we saw CRS (elite police) all around us.
We started to panic a bit," said Stephane, 45, who works in a hazardous
materials business in Dammartin-en-Goele, as he described
his frightening morning.
