3xwy Blog

Cuba’s state-run economy has been in crisis mode for years, but it’s facing some especially sobering arithmetic now. With trade falling and debt stacking up, President Raul Castro has warned Cubans that the island’s socialist system must change. And he’s asking them for something they’re not used to giving in public: criticism.

AP – After Richard Handy of Fairfield received an e-mail from a conservative group calling Gov. Ted Strickland’s proposed delay of Ohio’s income tax cuts a “retroactive tax increase,” Handy fired off a few passionate words to some state senators.

The two Koreas briefly exchange naval fire along their disputed western sea border in the first such clash in seven years. Each side blamed the other for violating the border, and South Korean officials said a North Korean ship suffered heavy damage before retreating.

The global recession put an estimated 20 million of China’s migrant laborers out of work. Most had moved to the coast for jobs that disappeared. Beijing feared unrest, inland areas have absorbed some of the surplus labor.

AP – Fannie Mae said Monday it may have to ask the government for more financial assistance because the company cannot sell $5.2 billion in tax credits.