in long-neglected Cuba news... I'm sure everyone has heard by now that Chávez has admitted that Castro is "battling for his life." The rumor mill is surprisingly quiet on the subject, but maybe that's because this has been dragged out for so long and the landscape has changed so much that Miami doesn't know what to rebel against anymore. If we were talking about anyone other than Castro, I would hesitate to evaluate the past six months as stategically motivated, but because it is Castro, I can't really imagine anything else. The guy learned his historical lessons, and he learned them well. And it's becoming increasingly clear that Raúl's interests in Beijing go beyond sheltering his cash loaf and annihilating his brain cells with copious amounts of baijo.  ¶ 10:45 AM