Sharif keen to meet Trump, may visit US next month

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is keen to meet Donald Trump, may visit Washington next month for the oath-taking ceremony of the US presidentelect, media reports said on Sunday. The two conversed on phone last week, when Trump showered effusive praise on Sharif and Pakistan. Sources said Special Assistant to Sharif on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi was scheduled to leave for the US on Sunday to finalise the schedule of the visit. PTI SANTIAGO,CUBA: Cuban President Raul Castro pledged to uphold his brother Fidel’s socialist revolution at a massive rally in honour of the communist icon before his burial.

Tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters recited the oath with Castro at the Revolution Plaza of Santiago de Cuba, the cradle of Fidel’s guerrilla struggle. “He demonstrated that yes we could, yes we can, yes we will overcome any obstacle, threat, turbulence in our firm resolve to build socialism in Cuba,”he said.

“In front of Fidel’s remains ... we swear to defend the fatherland and socialism,” said Castro, who took over when his brother fell ill in 2006.

Castro also announced that Cuba will prohibit the naming of streets and monuments after Fidel, and bar the construction of statues of the former leader and revolutionary icon in keeping with his desire to avoid a cult of personality.

The announcement late on Saturday came after a week of national mourning for Fidel that reached near-religious peaks of adulation and a half-day before his ashes were interred in Santiago’s Santa Ifigenia cemetery, ending the official mourning period.

“The leader of the revolution rejected any manifestation of a cult of personality and was consistent in that through the last hours of his life, insisting that, once dead, his name and likeness would never be used on institutions, streets, parks or other pub-