Nearly 38 years after President Salvador Allende died in a military coup and became a Cold War martyr of the international left, his body is being exhumed Monday in an exercise that even now is fraught with political overtones.

Raul Castro proposed term limits for Cuban politicians on Saturday, a remarkable gesture on an island ruled for 52 years by him and his brother, but one unlikely to have a major effect on his own future.

Former President Jimmy Carter met with Cuban dissidents early Wednesday following two days of talks with President Raul Castro, other government officials and religious leaders on a trip he hopes will boost strained U.S.-Cuban relations.

After Cuban authorities announced last September that they were opening the island's closed Marxist economy to a limited amount of private enterprise, thousands lined up for a new business license.

Nearly a million revelers crowded New York's Time Square to witness the traditional dazzling ball drop, fireworks lit up Australia's Sydney Harbor and communist Vietnam held a rare Western-style countdown to the new year as the world ushered in 2011.

Cuban President Raul Castro told legislators Saturday that the future of the country's revolution is at stake as the government tries to institute sweeping economic reforms, adding that the changes are meant to strengthen socialism - not replace it.

Cuban-American exiles in Florida may be eagerly awaiting the death of Fidel Castro, but U.S. diplomats in Havana don't expect the revolutionary icon's passing to generate any immediate unrest.

Asked about his plans to save Atlantic City's oldest casino, the new owner briefly touches on spruced up hotel rooms, guest suites and a snazzier casino floor. But what the place really needs, he says, is a whole lotta love.

Fidel Castro predicted Saturday that Democrats' recent losses in the U.S. midterm elections will result in ultraconservatives taking over the government. He also criticized a recent $600 billion Federal Reserve stimulus measure.

Cuba harshly criticized a new video game in which U.S. special operations soldiers try to kill a young Fidel Castro, saying Wednesday that the violent role-playing glorifies assassination and will turn American children into sociopaths.

Cuba's government has contacted about a dozen islanders jailed for crimes against the shadowy state-security apparatus and asked if they would be willing to accept freedom in return for leaving their homeland, a leading human rights activist said.

Fidel Castro dusted off his full military uniform for the first time since stepping down as president four years ago, a symbolic act in a communist country where little signals often carry enormous significance.

A lively and healthy-looking Fidel Castro appealed to President Barack Obama to prevent a global nuclear war in an emphatic speech Saturday that marked his first official government appearance since emergency surgery four years ago.

A relaxed and lucid Fidel Castro returned to the limelight Monday after years spent largely out of public view, discussing world events in a raspy voice in his most prominent television interview since falling seriously ill four years ago.

Now 16, Gonzalez's first comments to foreign reporters in years came after President Raul Castro attended a state celebration Wednesday night marking the 10th anniversary of the famous ex-castaway's return to the island.