Maybe it’s just because, in some irrational way, the Holocaust just feels worse than the Cultural Revolution or Stalin’s purges.

Cubans were focusing today on what acting president Raul Castro’s government would bring once his brother Fidel formally stepped down as the country’s all-powerful leader.

Ramon Castro said his younger brother Fidel was doing very well almost eight months after surgery, but dodged reporters’ questions about whether the Cuban leader would soon appear in public.

ONE would have imagined US President George W Bush had enough on his plate in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it is characteristic of the man that he is now concerned with the democratisation of Cuba.