Fidel Castro’s ashes reunited with ‘Che’ Guevara

Fidel Castro’s ashes were taken Thursday to a symbolic reunion with his fallen comrade-in-arms Ernesto “Che” Guevara in Santa Clara, the first stop in the late Cold War titan’s last trip across Cuba.
After two days of tributes in Havana, hundreds of thousands of flag-waving Cubans lined the streets to bid farewell as a military jeep began a four-day journey on Wednesday morning with the cedar urn in tow.
Crowds chanted “I am Fidel!” as the convoy started retracing the victory tour that Castro’s guerrilla took in 1959 to celebrate their defeat of US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
The flag-covered urn, which rested under a glass case on a small olive-green trailer, arrived in Santa Clara after midnight and entered a complex with a mausoleum and museum dedicated to Guevara.
“It’s a historic meeting, two comandantes who change the history of Cuba and humanity,” said Agnier Sanchez, a 33-year-old medical imaging technician.
A somber guitar, song and dance show played across a giant statue of Guevara as the “caravan of freedom” paused a third of the way into its 950-kilometer (590-mile) trek across the island.

Cancer infection to double in Africa in 20 years if not checked – Expert

A radiologist at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Prof. Ifeoma Okoye, has said Africa’s cancer mortality will double in the next 20 years if not tackled.
Speaking in Enugu on Wednesday during the Physicians’ Week organised by the Nigeria Medical Association, Enugu branch, Okoye noted that if cancer infections continued to rise without adequate modalities to control it, the country’s gross domestic product would be affected.
Okoye said: “This is because if those in productive age bracket are infected with cancer, their level of growth and productivity will be affected and this will in turn affect their individuality, community and the government.”
She regretted that many chronic diseases were not adequately addressed in the country, especially in the rural areas as many people living with cancer did not have access to primary health care.
Okoye said that the UN Cancer Control Programme was not implemented in the country and urged the governments to invest in health care to develop its own cancer plan.
The professor of radiation medicine said that tobacco intake, excessive alcohol, environmental factors and