Cuba's most prominent female dissident says she was brutally beaten at her home by a pro-government mob of people who knew she was heading to a meeting at the home of the top US diplomat in Havana.
Cuba has released nine detained political dissidents, including Marta Beatriz Roque, but continues to hold another 17 activists.
Brazil's great leftist experiment is under the microscope in the first major elections since the working class president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was elected in 2002.