MIAMI: The United States on Wednesday indicted Cuba&#39;s former leader Raul Castro, on murder charges, fueling speculation that President Donald Trump will try to topple the communist state. The charges against the former president -- who at 94 years old remains influential in Cuban politics -- stem from the deadly 1996 downing of two civilian planes manned by anti-Castro pilots. Castro is the younger brother of Fidel Castro, the late iconic US nemesis who led Cuba&#39;s 1959 communist revolution. &quot;We expect that he will show up here by his own will or by another way and go to prison,&quot; acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a news conference in Miami attended by cheering Cuban-Americans. In addition to murder, Castro has been charged with conspiracy to kill Americans and destruction of aircraft. The US government previously seized on a domestic indictment to justify military action in January that toppled and seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a staunch ally of Cuba. Trump hailed the indictment on Wednesday as a &quot;very big moment&quot; but played down prospects of moving on Cuba, whose economy has been in a deepening crisis for months amid a US oil blockade. &quot;There won&#39;t be escalation. I don&#39;t think there needs to be. Look, the place is falling apart. It&#39;s a mess, and they sort of lost control,&quot; he told reporters. The Cuban government, in a statement, said that the 1996 shootdown was &quot;legitimate self-defense&quot; against an airspace violation. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on X that the charges carry no legal basis and &quot;add to the file they are fabricating to justify the folly of a military aggression against Cuba.&quot; Five other Cubans were also charged, including the air force pilots who shot down the planes. Four people died in the 1996 incident, sending relations plummeting. Two decades later, Raul Castro joined US President Barack Obama in an effort to reconcile. Trump reversed Obama&#39;s effort to improve relations and has been steadily tightening sanctions on the island, already under a US embargo almost continuously since the communist revolution. &#39;New path&#39;&nbsp;Trump has repeatedly signaled that the Cuban government could be next after Venezuela to fall to US pressure, and earlier this month even said Washington would be &quot;taking over&quot; the Caribbean island, about 90 miles (145 km) from Florida, &quot;almost immediately.&quot; In a video message to the Cuban people in Spanish, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, himself a Cuban-American, accused the Havana leadership of theft, corruption, and oppression. &quot;President Trump is offering a new path between the US and a new Cuba,&quot; Rubio said in the message on the day Cuban-Americans mark the island&#39;s independence from Spain. &quot;A new Cuba where you have a real opportunity to choose who governs your country and vote to replace them if they are not doing a good job.&quot; The US ousting of Maduro has hit Cuba hard, cutting off a supply of free Venezuelan oil to the island, which has suffered major blackouts. Rubio has dangled an offer of $100 million in aid to Cuba if it takes steps to open up. &quot;Currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country,&quot; Rubio said. &#39;Pretext&#39; for war&nbsp;Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned against war and urged Trump to return to the Obama-era policy. &quot;Raul Castro should be held accountable for the murder of Americans over international waters. But this indictment looks less like a pursuit of justice and more like a pretext for escalation, potentially even an illegal invasion of Cuba,&quot; Meeks said. Trump has described his stance as a reward to Cuban-Americans who helped him win the electorally crucial state of Florida. At the Versailles restaurant, a historic gathering point for Miami&#39;s Cuban diaspora, Francys Fabelo, a 67-year-old writer originally from Cuba, said the community has been waiting for charges against the Castros for decades. &quot;You don&#39;t mess with President Trump. I think this is serious. We hope, the people of Cuba hope, that this is serious,&quot; she said.

People hold signs outside Versailles Restaurant in support of charges announced by US federal prosecutors against the former Cuban president in Miami, Florida, on May 20, 2026 (AFP)

Americas

The charges against the former president stem from the deadly 1996 downing of two civilian aircraft flown by anti-Castro pilots, while Castro is also being charged with conspiracy to kill Americans and destruction of aircraft.

US charges former Cuban president with murder as pressure builds

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday paid tribute to the six security personnel, including a young army officer, who were martyred during an intelligence-based operation in Pakistan&rsquo;s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.&nbsp;The leaders expressed deep condolences to the families of the martyrs and reaffirmed Pakistan&rsquo;s resolve to eliminate terrorism, according to official statements.&nbsp;A powerful blast struck a security forces vehicle during the operation earlier in the day, resulting in the martyrdom of Captain Noman Saleem and five soldiers, while several others sustained injuries.&nbsp;In a statement issued by the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Office, PM Sharif said the nation &ldquo;salutes the security forces and the martyrs,&rdquo; adding that the soldiers had laid down their lives while defending the motherland.&nbsp;He prayed for the departed and said Pakistan would continue its fight &ldquo;until the last terrorist is eliminated.&rdquo;&nbsp;President Zardari, in a message posted on X, paid tribute to Captain Saleem and the troops who, he said, embraced martyrdom while confronting what Islamabad describes as &ldquo;India-backed Fitna al-Khwarij.&rdquo;&nbsp;Pakistan uses the term &ldquo;Khawarij&rdquo; to refer to militants of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), invoking a label historically associated with an extremist sect that rejected legitimate authority.&nbsp;The president praised personnel&rsquo;s courage and stated that Pakistan&rsquo;s security forces &ldquo;remain firm in their resolve to eradicate terrorism in all its forms.&rdquo;&nbsp;According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the operation was conducted on October 29 in the Dogar area of Kurram district on the basis of intelligence reports about the presence of militants described as &ldquo;Khwarij belonging to an Indian proxy, Fitna al-Khwarij.&rdquo;&nbsp;The military said seven militants were killed during the engagement.&nbsp;However, the exchange of heavy fire resulted in the martyrdom of Captain Noman Saleem, a 24-year-old medical officer from Mianwali, along with Havildar Amjad Ali of Swabi, Naik Waqas Ahmad of Rawalpindi, Sepoy Aijaz Ali of Shikarpur, Sepoy Muhammad Waleed of Jhelum, and Sepoy Muhammad Shahbaz of Khairpur.&nbsp;ISPR stated that sanitization operations are continuing in the area to ensure the elimination of any remaining militants. It said the counterterrorism campaign under the national initiative &ldquo;Azm-e-Istehkam,&rdquo; as approved by the Federal Apex Committee, will continue &ldquo;at full pace&rdquo; to wipe out foreign-backed terrorism.&nbsp;Both the prime minister and president emphasized that the sacrifices of the armed forces will not go in vain. &ldquo;Pakistan&rsquo;s fight against terrorism is unwavering,&rdquo; the prime minister said, promising full support to the families of the martyrs.

Security

According to the military’s media wing, six soldiers, including Captain Noman Saleem, were martyred during an intelligence-based operation in Kurram district, where security forces killed seven militants linked to the India-backed Fitna al-Khwarij group.

President, PM honor six soldiers martyred in Kurram operation in Pakistan’s northwest

PARIS: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived at a prison in Paris on Tuesday to begin serving a 5-year sentence for a criminal conspiracy to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya. He is the first ex-leader of modern France to be imprisoned. Sarkozy, hand-in-hand with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, left home before getting into a police car and traveling to prison. On his way to prison, Sarkozy said in a statement released on social media that &ldquo;an innocent man&rdquo; was being locked up. Sarkozy&rsquo;s lawyers said a request for release has been immediately filed. He was convicted last month for criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya. Sarkozy contests both the conviction and a judge&rsquo;s unusual decision to incarcerate him pending appeal. His journey from the presidential Elys&eacute;e Palace to the notorious La Sant&eacute; prison in Paris has captivated France. Minutes before entering prison, Sarkozy and his wife walked slowly to join his children and grandchildren outside his home. He waved at a crowd of supporters gathered in the high-end Paris neighborhood where he lives, then got into his car. Hundreds of supporters applauded and chanted &ldquo;Nicolas, Nicolas&rdquo; and sang the French anthem. Two French flags were hung on a nearby fence, with the inscriptions: &ldquo;Courage Nicolas, return soon&rdquo; and &quot;true France with Nicolas.&quot; Sarkozy&rsquo;s sons and daughter &mdash; Jean, Pierre, Louis and Giulia &mdash; and his grandchildren showed up at the gathering. Parisian resident Michelle Peri&eacute;, 67, said she came in support &ldquo;because there is anger, injustice.&quot; &ldquo;He&rsquo;s not like any other defendants, he&rsquo;s someone who holds state secrets, he&rsquo;s someone who has always done his job with his head held high. We don&rsquo;t understand,&rdquo; she said. Embattled centrist President Emmanuel Macron hosted the conservative Sarkozy at the presidential palace last week. &lsquo;&rsquo;I have always been very clear in my public statements about the independence of the judiciary in my role, but it was normal on a human level to receive one of my predecessors in this context,&#39;&#39; Macron said Monday. Sarkozy&#39;s lawyers said the former president will be held in solitary confinement, where he will be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons. Sarkozy&rsquo;s lawyer Christophe Ingrain said on BFM TV that incarceration &ldquo;strengthens his determination, it strengthens his rage to prove that he is innocent.&rdquo; Ingrain said Sarkozy is planning to write a book about his prison experience. Jean-Michel Darrois, another of Sarkozy&#39;s lawyers, said on Tuesday that the former president got himself &ldquo;mentally prepared&rdquo; to be held in solitary confinement, where he would be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons. &ldquo;First, he packed a bag with a few sweaters because it&rsquo;s cold in prison, and earplugs because it&rsquo;s very noisy,&rdquo; Darrois said on France Info news broadcaster. &ldquo;Isolation like what he&rsquo;s going to go through is painful, but he got himself prepared.&rdquo; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not afraid of prison. I&rsquo;ll hold my head high, including in front of the doors of La Sant&eacute;,&rdquo; Sarkozy told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll fight till the end.&rdquo; The paper said Sarkozy has his prison bag ready with clothes and the 10 family photos he is allowed to bring. Sarkozy also told Le Figaro newspaper that he would bring three books &mdash; the maximum allowed &mdash; including Alexandre Dumas&#39; &ldquo;The Count of Monte Cristo,&#39;&#39; in which the hero escapes from an island prison before seeking revenge. The Paris judge ruled that Sarkozy would start to serve prison time without waiting for his appeal to be heard, due to &ldquo;the seriousness of the disruption to public order caused by the offense.&rdquo; Under the ruling, the 70-year-old Sarkozy will only be able to file a request for release to the appeals court once he is behind bars, and judges will then have up to two months to process it.

Europe

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy began a 5-year prison sentence for financing his 2007 campaign with Libyan funds, becoming France’s first jailed ex-leader. He denies wrongdoing and plans to appeal while in solitary confinement.

France’s ex-president Sarkozy jailed for 5 years in campaign finance conspiracy

BOGOTA: The YouTube account of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro&nbsp;was offline Saturday, with Venezuelan state-run channel Telesur claiming in a message on X that it was &ldquo;eliminated&rdquo; late the previous night without justification.&nbsp;YouTube&rsquo;s parent company Google did not immediately respond to questions on the apparent termination of the Venezuelan president&rsquo;s account. It comes amid rising tensions between Venezuela and the United States over the deployment of American warships and fighter jets in the southern Caribbean.&nbsp;Maduro&rsquo;s YouTube account had more than 200,000 followers before it became unavailable on Friday and was used to publish the Venezuelan president&rsquo;s speeches, as well as clips from his weekly show on Venezuelan state TV.&nbsp;On its website, YouTube states that it eliminates accounts that commit &ldquo;repeated violations of community guidelines,&rdquo; which include publishing misinformation, hate speech, and content that &ldquo;interferes with democratic processes.&rdquo;&nbsp;Maduro has been widely accused of stealing last year&rsquo;s presidential election in Venezuela, which he lost by a landslide according to tally sheets gathered by hundreds of Venezuelan opposition activists. Venezuela&rsquo;s elections agency, which the ruling socialist party controls, never published tally sheets to support its claim that Maduro won the vote.&nbsp;In 2020, Maduro was indicted by a federal court in New York, where he has been charged with conspiring to traffic cocaine to the United States.&nbsp;&nbsp;Recently, the US doubled a bounty payment for Maduro&rsquo;s capture to $50 million, with White House officials often referring to Maduro as a drug cartel leader who must be brought to justice.&nbsp;While Venezuela continues to sell oil to the United States and take deportation flights, relations between the two nations have worsened with the deployment of eight US warships last month to an area of the southern Caribbean near Venezuela&rsquo;s coast.&nbsp;The Trump administration says the ships, which are fitted with long-range missiles and are also transporting a landing force of 2,000 Marines, are on an anti-drug trafficking mission.&nbsp;But Venezuela&rsquo;s government has described the deployment as an attack on the nation&rsquo;s sovereignty and part of an effort to overthrow Maduro&rsquo;s government.&nbsp;The US flotilla has destroyed three speedboats allegedly carrying drugs so far, according to the White House, killing more than a dozen people on board the small vessels.

YouTube account of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was offline Saturday, with Venezuelan state-run channel Telesur claiming in a message on X that it was “eliminated”

Articles tagged with "President"

US charges former Cuban president with murder as pressure builds

President, PM honor six soldiers martyred in Kurram operation in Pakistan’s northwest

France’s ex-president Sarkozy jailed for 5 years in campaign finance conspiracy

Venezuelan president's YouTube account offline as tensions with US escalate

US charges former Cuban president with murder as pressure builds