Selection: Michalis Katsigeras

SPAIN: Madrid, 17 – Extremist elements in Madrid have launched a violent campaign against domestic “capitalist traitors” whom they accuse of putting the country “in a situation that could potentially create the worst economic crisis in its history.” Pamphlets containing incendiary language have been pushed under hundreds of doors or passed on from one person to the next, publicly denouncing those described as being guilty of having illegal bank accounts outside Spain and demanding that these people be arrested and imprisoned. The campaign began after the discovery last month that hundreds of Spaniards were stripping the country of vitally necessary foreign exchange and channeling it into bank accounts abroad. The scandal, one of the worst in Spanish history, has shaken financial circles in Madrid and has implicated some of the country’s most prominent families. ONLY 450: Havana, 17 – Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has told a rally of hundreds of workers outside the presidential palace that no more than 450 supporters of the old regime would be executed. So far, 203 people have been executed in Cuba.