|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Attack believed to be aimed at Hamas official wipes out 11 members of a single family as onslaught continues At least 11 members of one family, including five women and four children, were killed when Israel bombed a house in Gaza City on Sunday as the five-day-old war claimed more civilian lives with no sign of a letup in the intense bombardment. The air strike flattened the home of the Dalou family in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City, causing the biggest death toll in a single incident since the offensive began last Wednesday. The bodies of the children were pulled from the rubble and taken to the morgue at the Shifa hospital. The dead also included an 80-year-old woman. Ismael Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, described the deaths as an "ugly massacre" and its military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, said: "The massacre of the Dalou family will not pass without punishment." Diggers at the scene of the explosion were scooping rubble from flattened buildings as rescuers tried to locate survivors. Witnesses said there were chaotic scenes as the dead and injured were brought to the Shifa hospital, which has been on emergency footing since the start of Operation Pillar of Defence. The bodies of four young children lay on two metal trays in the morgue, covered in dust and blood. A crowd of onlookers outside became increasingly distressed as the body of the children's mother was wheeled in, covered in blankets. The strike was believed to be aimed at a Hamas official, Mohamed Dalou. A spokesman for the Israeli Defence Forces said the military could not confirm the target but said "senior operatives affiliated with rocket fire" were being pinpointed. A similar scene unfolded elsewhere in the city early Monday, when an air strike levelled two houses belonging to a single family, killing two children and two adults and injuring 42 people, including children, said Gaza heath official Ashraf al-Kidra. Rescue workers were frantically searching for 12 to 15 members of the Azzam family under the rubble. In all, 81 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, have been killed in the five-day onslaught and 720 have been wounded. Three Israeli civilians have died from Palestinian rocket fire and dozens have been wounded. After an overnight lull in rocket fire from Gaza, Hamas and other groups renewed their attacks on Sunday. Sirens were activated in Tel Aviv for the third day running. Israel Army Radio reported that two rockets fired at the city were shot down by Iron Dome defence system. Late night, there were reports of renewed shelling in Gaza by Israeli navel vessels. The tactic of targeting militants' homes carries the risk of further high casualties in the densely populated areas of Gaza's main cities. Many militants have moved their families to safer areas before going into hiding themselves. The Israeli military has also expanded the scope of its targets to take in Hamas-run government offices and compounds. Some families living near militants or government buildings are leaving their homes to move in with relatives in signs of increasing internal displacement within the small and crowded Gaza Strip. Israel claims it is carrying out "surgical strikes" and making strenuous efforts to avoid civilian casualties. "It is our intention to avoid what is called collateral damage," Moshe Yaalon, minister for strategic affairs, told a press conference in Jerusalem. "We operate slowly, identify the target and clean the area around it," he added, referring to warnings issued via dropped leaflets and text messages to civilians to stay away from individuals and locations likely to be targeted. "But when they use civilians as human shields, what is our choice?" he said. "If they position rockets in densely populated areas, such as mosques and schoolyards, we should not be blamed for the outcome." The World Health Organisation warned that Gaza's medical facilities were being overwhelmed as the number of people injured in air strikes topped 400, about one-third of whom are children. "Many of those injured have been admitted to hospitals with severe burns, injuries from collapsing buildings and head injuries," the WHO said in a statement issued in Geneva. The UN body appealed for $10m (£6.3m) in immediate international support to help them cope with the casualties. Sunday's death toll came after a night of heavy bombardment, including repeated and intensive fire from gunboats stationed off the Gaza coast. Two buildings housing media organisations were struck in the early hours, injuring eight Palestinian journalists including a cameraman who lost a leg. The al-Shawa building, which includes the studios of al-Quds television, which is associated with Islamic Jihad, and the al-Shuruq building, housing Sky News, al-Arabiya news network, Dubai TV and an office of al-Aqsa TV, which is affiliated with Hamas, were hit. In a statement, the Israeli Defence Forces said: "A communications antenna used by Hamas to carry out terror activity against the state of Israel, was ... targeted." The IDF denied that journalists were targeted. Israel opened the Kerem Shalom crossing to Gaza briefly to allow humanitarian aid to enter and 26 patients and their families to leave for medical treatment.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Israel targets Hamas houses
• 'Surgical' attacks on Hamas figures, says Israeli spokesman
• Obama: 'We will continue to support Israel's right to defend itself'
• Two rockets fired at Tel Aviv intercepted and destroyed
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Deciding there's not a moment to lose, Florida senator uses governor's birthday bash as a chance for some politicking Just when you thought it was all over, with Barack Obama still savouring victory, the game starts anew. Marco Rubio has seemingly kicked off the 2016 presidential race. The Republican senator dashed onto the field with a trip to the caucus state of Iowa on Saturday in the apparent belief that with over 1,450 days till the next election there was no time to lose. Rubio went ostensibly to celebrate the birthday of the governor, Terry Branstad, but used the fundraising bash for a campaign-style speech and thinly veiled declaration of intent to seek the GOP nomination. "We need to do a better job of going out and convincing our fellow Americans who perhaps don't see things the way we do," Rubio said. Bobby Jindal, the equally ambitious Republican governor of Louisiana, warmed up on the sidelines with interviews staking out his claim to lead the GOP away from Mitt Romney and out of the wilderness. "We as a Republican party have to campaign for every single vote," he told Fox News on Sunday. "We don't start winning majorities… by insulting our voters." Political junkies may relish the prospect of a 38-month campaign until the next presidential election but others may have hoped for a respite. The bunting for 2012 has barely been taken down, it is not yet Thanksgiving and Obama has yet to begin his second term. "Now that the 2012 election cycle is done, let's look at 2016 shall we? (collective groan)," wrote one Iowa-base conservative blogger, only half-defensively. Rubio, 41, may have set a record for campaign precociousness with his visit to Iowa, which holds the first caucus in presidential primaries. Asked why he had come, the Florida senator grinned and replied: "For governor Branstad's birthday, his 66th." He expressed mock surprise that "people so far from Florida even care what I have to say". As a young, media-savvy Latino with impeccable conservative credentials, many Republicans tip Rubio as the sort of candidate who can appeal to ethnic minorities and dig the party out of its ageing, white demographic trap. "I've been sensing a lot of folks are just trying to figure out what this all means in this new era, with this election having passed," he told reporters. "I think we're all going to move on and move forward." Rubio said the GOP could attract Hispanics, who helped swing key states for Obama, with an enlightened immigration policy. "People understand that we need to do something to address those issues and they want to do that in a reasonable and responsible way." Branstad introduced his guest by saying the party needed to "turn the page" on the Romney candidacy and praising Rubio as the "kind of inspirational leader that's going to help point us in the right direction". The Cuban American senator seized the opportunity with a 24-minute speech asserting conservative values and bashing Obama's plan to increase taxes on those making more than $250,000 per year. "The way to turn our economy around is not by making rich people poorer, it's by making poor people richer." Jockeying so soon after an election is not unusual. It was around this day four years ago, AP noted, that Romney asserted his ambitions in a New York Times op-ed titled Let Detroit Go Bankrupt. Not, in hindsight, a shrewd play for Ohio but it put him in the game. Rubio's trip to Iowa is a bolder gambit which will put pressure on potential rivals like Jindal and New Jersey governor Chris Christie to signal their own intentions. Birthday parties in other caucus states like New Hampshire and South Carolina may be about to get crowded.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mike Rogers and other lawmakers suggest Barack Obama may have known about former general's affair before election day Barack Obama may have known about the extra-marital affair that brought down former CIA boss David Petraeus prior to being re-elected president, the Republican head of the influential House intelligence committee claimed Sunday. Casting aspersions over the official timeline of events, congressman Mike Rogers said he was "not sure" that Obama did not know about the four-star general's infidelities ahead of the 6 November election, suggesting that attorney general Eric Holder may have notified him privately of the matter. He called on Holder to address Congress over the issue. Questions over who knew what and when in relation to the scandal have become a persistent irritant to the White House, with opponents of the president suggesting, in the words of House homeland security committee chairman Peter King, that something "doesn't add up". It is thought that the FBI originally questioned Petraeus about his affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell in October but sat on the information until the night of the election. At that point, agents notified national intelligence director James Clapper who advised the CIA chief to resign. Even then it was not until the next day that the White House was informed of the situation. It then took a further 24 hours before newly re-elected Obama was told that his intelligence chief was to tender his resignation, according to administration officials. It was initially suggested by some in Washington that Petraeus's resignation was timed so that he would avoid giving evidence to congressional bodies on the deadly assault on the US consulate in Benghazi. That theory was blown out of the water on Friday, when the former CIA chief did give evidence to lawmakers. He told them during a closed-door session that he had always known that a terrorist group was behind the attack – some officials, notably UN ambassador Susan Rice had at first suggested that the assault was part of a spontaneous demonstration over a US-produced anti-Muslim film. Petraeus is said to have explained in Friday's hearing that a report provided to Rice – who is tipped to Hillary Clinton successor in the State Department – did not mention the reference to it being the result of a terrorist attack. Despite the former CIA chief's testimony, a succession of Republican lawmakers have kept up the pressure on Rice to give evidence in person over why she initially suggested that the attack – in which four Americans including ambassador Chris Stevens were killed – was the result of a protest that turned violent. "She's going to have to come in and testify at some point, whether it's in a closed hearing or an open hearing," Republican Saxby Chambliss, vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, told Fox News Sunday. With suspicion over Petraeus's resignation being linked to a Benghazi cover-up seemingly removed, some Republican lawmakers now appear to be suggesting that the president misled America over when he was informed about the general's affair for political game. On Meet the Press, Rogers said: "I'm not sure that the president was not told before election day. The attorney general said that the Department of Justice did not notify the president, but we don't know if the attorney general...(notified him). The Republican House representative added that Holder should come before the intelligence committees to discuss the matter. "We could resolve this very quickly with a conversation in the intelligence spaces if he did have that conversation with the president," he said. The Democrat chair of the Senate intelligence committee, Dianne Feinstein, disagreed. She said the attorney general had already explained that there had been no notification while the investigation into the Petraeus affair was under way. The Justice Department and the FBI took this approach, "so there is an ability to move ahead without any political weighing-in on any side," she said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • 19 dead in Gaza as Israel targets Hamas houses
• 'Surgical' attacks on Hamas figures, says Israeli spokesman
• Obama: 'We will continue to support Israel's right to http://cms.guprod.gnl/tools/liveblog/399595722/editdefend itself'
• Two rockets fired at Tel Aviv intercepted and destroyed
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Both aircraft damaged after police suspect rotator blades of landing chopper touched those of a second one taking off Two police helicopters collided over a helipad Saturday, leaving five police officers and a civilian with minor injuries, officials said. Police believed the collision occurred when the rotator blades of a chopper that was landing and one that was taking off touched, Lt Phlunte Riddle said. The collision caused extensive damage to both aircraft, crumpling the tail and breaking the blades of one and causing the blade to fall off and other damages to the other. The injured were taken to hospitals for evaluation after the 4pm collision at a helipad in Altadena. Riddle said they included a pilot and an observer in each of the Bell OH-58A helicopters and two officers on the ground. One of the observers was a civilian. The weather was drizzly and cloudy at the time of the accident. FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said his agency and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The collision follows a much more serious crash in Atlanta this month where two officers in a police helicopter were killed when the aircraft hit wires atop a power pole.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hundreds of houses too damaged to repair will be bulldozed in hardest hit areas of Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn Hundreds of New York homes hit by superstorm Sandy have been earmarked for demolition after being deemed to be a public health risk, it was reported Sunday. An article in the New York times claims that 200 properties in badly affected parts of Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn will be bulldozed in the coming weeks, adding to the 200 that have already been partially or completed destroyed already. It comes as state officials prepare to ask for more than $30bn in federal disaster aid to help it recover from Sandy's destructive winds and storm surges. Around $1.65bn of that is needed to rebuild homes, it has been reported. The superstorm resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people as it tore through the US on 29 October, adding to scores of victims in the Caribbean. Power outages in the immediate aftermath of the freak weather event left more around 8.5 million customers across the eastern states. New York was amongst the worst hit. The state-owned Long Island Power Company said 1 million of its 1.1 million customers suffered blackouts. Meanwhile utilities giants ConEd and the National Grid reported millions more homes and businesses affected. Cold weather forced thousands to New Yorkers to seek warm shelters in the days after the storm. Some were not allowed to return home, with the city's building department initially ruling that 891 buildings were unsafe, the New York Times reported. Of those, at least 200 have now been condemned. Nearly 500 others are still being checked to see if they can be repaired, according to the newspaper. News of the demolitions were reported as vice-president Joe Biden toured areas in New Jersey that were likewise badly hit by the storm. "How many of you guys are out of your homes right now?" he asked during a site visit of Seaside Heights in Ocean County. Most of those present raised their hands.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Store owner offered free shotgun to team with the most scalps but reporters outnumbered demonstrators on hunt's first day Only one coyote had been shot so far and no protesters showed up Saturday at a New Mexico gun shop sponsoring a coyote hunting contest this weekend that set off howls of protests from animal activists. In fact, television and radio reporters milling in the shop's parking lot were the biggest problem the hunt created, said Rick Gross, business manager of Gunhawk Firearms in Los Lunas. Animal activists and the state's trust land commissioner were incensed when Gunhawk owner Mark Chavez said he'd go ahead with the hunt despite the protests. The two-day hunt sparked thousands of angry emails, social media postings and a petition signed by activists from as far as Europe who have demanded that the hunt be called off. Last week, a small group of protesters held a rally outside of Gunhawk Firearms and waved signs denouncing the event as cruel and "bloodthirsty". Gunhawk's Rick Grosse said Saturday each of about 100 hunters signed a pledge to only hunt on private land with the owner's permission. He said there's no shortage of hunting spots because many ranchers lose cattle to coyotes and are happy to see them gone. The terms of the competition are simple: hunters have two days this weekend to shoot and kill as many coyotes as they can, and the winners get their choice of a free shotgun or a pair of semi-automatic rifles. Gross said he and his partner, Chavez, decided they needed to go ahead with the hunt on principal after a large shop in Albuquerque pulled out of a planned hunt a month ago because of pressure from activists. He pointed out that hunting coyotes is legal, and noted that paid government hunters take thousands a year to cut the population. "We care about public opinion, we care," Gross told the Associated Press by phone on Saturday. "Honestly we took this over because a big gun shop pulled out because of threats. And we just thought that was wrong. "We're going to stick to it no matter what – much more on principle." People are upset over the idea of making a contest out of killing an animal that usually lives peacefully alongside residents, Susan Weiss, 74, who leads the Coexist with Coyotes group in Corrales said on Friday. "There's a tremendous amount of arrogance in conducting this hunt," Weiss said. "(Chavez) is damaging the reputation of ranchers. He is damaging the reputation of legitimate hunters." But Gross said the controversy was overblown. "Of the estimated 300,000 coyotes in this state, maybe 100-200 are going to be taken in this hunt," he noted. Plus, Gross said, ranchers are crying out for help. "We get pictures from ranchers every day – they send us pictures of slaughtered livestock every day," he said. The two-day hunt concludes Sunday.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Latest incident further inflames tensions on Japanese island where last month two navy sailors were accused of rape Okinawa police arrested an apparently drunk US Marine on Sunday on suspicion of trespass amid growing anger on the southern Japanese island over military crimes and demands for stricter regulations for American troops. The incident, the second after the US military had stepped up disciplinary steps last month, immediately triggered harsh reaction from the Okinawa government. Police said 1st Lt Tomas Chanquet of the marine air station Futenma allegedly sneaked into a room through an unlocked door and slept until spotted by a resident who called police. Sunday's arrest was especially inflammatory on Okinawa, where the emperor Akihito was visiting to attend a fisheries event. "I'm too shocked to say anything. It's utterly ridiculous and extremely regrettable," Okinawa governor Hirokazu Nakaima told reporters. "I must lodge a strong protest to both the Japanese and US governments. They must do something more significant." Prime minister Yoshihiko Noda is expected to raise the issue during talks Tuesday with President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the summit of south-east Asian countries in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Kyodo News agency reported. An alleged rape by two navy sailors last month enraged Okinawans and reignited deep-rooted anti-base sentiment on the island, home to more than half the 52,000 US troops in Japan. The case led to a curfew on all troops in Japan, but two weeks later an American airman allegedly assaulted a teenager. Sunday's incident also raises questions over the effectiveness of the curfew and other disciplinary steps. Japan has lodged a formal protest with the US embassy and military over the incident Sunday and demanded that they make sure the curfew is enforced. Chanquet was apparently drunk when he entered the apartment, Okinawa police official Masahiko Gishi said. Police are investigating if he broke the curfew and was drinking off-base prior to the alleged trespassing. On Friday, Okinawa's state assembly adopted a resolution protesting the two earlier cases, demanding tougher regulations and stepped-up efforts to reduce the number of troops and bases on the island. The resolution also called for a review of legal procedures for military suspects and efforts to streamline the US troop presence. Okinawans have staged massive protests against the deployment in October of Osprey military aircraft despite opposition over safety concerns following two crashes elsewhere. Local opposition to the US bases over noise, safety and crime flared into mass protests after the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl by three American servicemen. The outcry eventually led to an agreement to close the Futenma airfield, but the plan has stalled for more than a decade over where a replacement facility should be located.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rwandan-backed rebel group claim they are poised to capture Goma, a crucial provincial capital in eastern Congo A Rwandan-backed rebel group has advanced to within 1.8 miles (3km) of Goma, a crucial provincial capital in eastern Congo, marking the first time rebels have come this close since 2008. Congolese army spokesman Colonel Olivier Hamuli said the fighting had been continuing since 6am on Sunday and that the frontline had moved to just outside the city. He denied reports Congolese soldiers were refusing to fight and fleeing. Contacted by telephone on the frontline, M23 rebel spokesman Colonel Vianney Kazarama said his forces were poised to capture the city. "We are about to take the town. We will spend the night in Goma tonight," said Kazarama. "We are confident that we can take Goma and then our next step will be to take Bukavu," he said referring to the capital of the next province to the south. The M23 rebel group comprises soldiers from a now-defunct rebel army, the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a group made up primarily of fighters from the Tutsi, the ethnic group targeted in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. In 2008, the CNDP led by Rwandan commando General Laurent Nkunda marched his soldiers to the outskirts of Goma but stopped short of taking the city. In the negotiations that culminated in a peace deal on 23 March 2009, the CNDP agreed to disband and their fighters joined the national army of Congo. They did not take up arms again until this spring, when hundreds of former CNDP fighters defected from the army in April, claiming the Congolese government had failed to keep their side of the 2009 agreement. Numerous reports including one by the United Nations Group of Experts have shown M23 is being actively backed by Rwanda and that the new rebellion is most likely linked to the fight to control Congo's rich mineral wealth. The latest fighting broke out on Thursday and on Saturday, UN attack helicopters targeted M23 positions in eastern Congo, killing 151 rebels. The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, had phoned Paul Kagame, the Rwandan president, on Saturday "to request that he use his influence on the M23 to help calm the situation and restrain M23 from continuing their attack", peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous said at UN headquarters in New York. The governor of North Kivu, Paluku, said on Saturday the Congolese army had earlier retreated from Kibumba, 19 miles north of Goma, after being attacked by thousands of Rwandans, who he says were backing the rebels. "Rwandan forces bombarded our positions in Kibumba since early this morning and an estimated 3,500 crossed the border to attack us," he said on Saturday. In Goma, panicked residents tried to get more information on what was happening. A 45-year-old mother of five said that she had nowhere to go. "I don't really know what is happening, I've seen soldiers and tanks in the streets and that scares me," said Imaculee Kahindo. Asked if she planned to leave the city, she said: "What can we do? I will probably hide in my house with my children." Hamuli, the spokesman for the Congolese army, denied reports that soldiers were fleeing. In 2008, as Nkunda's CNDP rebels massed at the gates of Goma, journalists inside the city reported seeing Congolese soldiers running in the opposite direction having abandoned their posts. The badly paid Congolese army is notoriously dysfunctional, making it difficult to secure their loyalties during heavy fighting. "We are fighting 3km from Goma, just past the airport. And our troops are strong enough to resist the rebels," said Hamuli. "We won't let the M23 march into our town," he said. Asked if his troops were fleeing, he added: "These are false rumours. We are not going anywhere." Ladsous said from the UN in New York on Saturday that the rebels were well-equipped, including with night vision equipment. Reports by UN experts have accused Rwanda, as well as Uganda, of supporting the rebels. Both countries deny any involvement and Uganda said if the charges continued it would pull its peacekeeping troops out of Somalia, where they are playing a key role in pushing out the Islamist extremist rebels. The UN security council called for an immediate stop to the violence following a two-hour emergency meeting behind closed doors. The council said it would impose sanctions against M23 rebels and demanded they immediately halt their advance. "We must stop the M23" because Goma's fall "would, inevitably, turn into a humanitarian crisis," said France's ambassador to the UN, Gérard Araud. He said UN officials would decide in the coming days which M23 leaders to target for additional sanctions.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | President brushes off criticism that visit comes too early and says it's time to congratulate nation on opening door to change President Barack Obama said Sunday that his historic trip to Burma was not an "endorsement" of the country's reformist government but rather acknowledgement of steps made towards democracy. Speaking at the start of a visit to south-east Asia, Obama praised Burmese president Thein Sein for moving the formerly secretive nation forward after years of repressive military junta rule. He denied that Monday's tour of the country – the first by a serving US head of state – was premature, stating: "If we had waited until they had achieved a perfect democracy, my suspicion is we would be waiting a long time." The comments were made during a press conference in neighbouring Thailand. The three-day trip comes just two weeks after Obama was re-elected to serve another four years in the White House. As the first overseas trip of his second term, it has been seen in the context of a pivoting of America's interests away from Europe and the Middle East towards Asia. But the visit to Burma has had its critics. Although he will be applauded by some for encouraging the once-closed nation down the road towards democracy, others have noted that those reforms have yet to be consolidated. Moreover questions remain over the regime's commitment to human rights, with special attention paid to its past record of political persecution and the brutal repression of ethnic minorities. Hundreds of prisoners were released by Burma last week ahead of Obama's visit but human rights campaigners said no political prisoners were included. Obama said Sunday that he would address lingering concerns with the Burmese government. "I'm not somebody who thinks that the United States should stand on the sidelines and not want to get its hands dirty when there's an opportunity for us to encourage the better impulses inside a country," he told reporters. He continued: "This is not an endorsement if the Burmese government, this is an acknowledgment that there is a process under way inside that country that even a year and a half ago, two years ago, no one foresaw it." Obama went on to say that under Sein, there had been an "articulated commitment to further political reform" but that no one was "under the illusion that Burma has arrived". Responding to criticism that the trip had come too early down the road of reform, Obama said: "If we had waited until they had achieved a perfect democracy, my suspicion is we would be waiting a long time." But he pledged to "give voice to the much greater progress that needs to be made in the future" during his talks with Sein. The US president said he would "congratulate them on having opened the door" but stress that "the country has a long way to go". Obama added that he took guidance from the example of Aung San Suu Kyi, the much-admired Nobel peace prize laureate, whom he is due to meet in Rangoon during the visit.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Adela Hernandez, jailed for 'dangerousness' in the 1980s, becomes first transgender person to hold public office in Cuba A Cuban transsexual has become the first known transgender person to hold public office in the country, winning election as a delegate to the municipal government of Caibarien in the central province of Villa Clara. Adela Hernandez, 48, hailed her election in a country where gays were persecuted for decades and sent to rural work camps as another milestone in the gradual shift away from macho attitudes in the years since Fidel Castro himself expressed regret over the treatment of people perceived to be different. Hernandez, who has lived as a female since childhood, served two years in prison in the 1980s for "dangerousness" after her own family denounced her sexuality. "As time evolves, homophobic people – although they will always exist – are the minority," Hernandez said by phone from her home town. Becoming a delegate "is a great triumph", she added. Because she has not undergone sex-change surgery, Hernandez is legally still a man in the eyes of the Cuban state: Jose Agustin Hernandez, according to the civil registry. Hernandez, who switched back and forth between feminine and masculine pronouns when referring to herself during an interview, said she had not yet decided to seek an operation but had not ruled it out. Hernandez won office in early November by taking a runoff vote 280-170. Her position is the equivalent of a city councillor, and her election makes her eligible to be selected as an MP in early 2013. For years after the 1959 Cuban revolution, authorities hounded people of differing sexual orientation and others considered threatening, such as priests, long-haired youths and rock 'n' roll enthusiasts. But there have been notable changes in attitudes toward sexuality. "I would like to think that discrimination against homosexuals is a problem that is being overcome," Castro told an interviewer some years ago. Since 2007, the island has included sex-change surgery under its free healthcare system. Last year, a gay man and a transsexual woman whose operation was paid for by the state garnered headlines for their first-of-its kind wedding. The country's most prominent gay rights activist is Mariela Castro, Fidel's niece and daughter of the president, Raúl Castro. As director of Cuba's National Centre for Sex Education, she has launched awareness campaigns, trained police on relations with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and lobbied parliament to legalise same-sex unions. Born in a sugar town in central Cuba, Hernandez was disowned by her family and said it was her own father who reported her to the authorities, leading to her imprisonment. She had to move away and defend herself physically from attacks. Over the decades she found work as a hospital janitor, then as a nurse and most recently as an electrocardiogram technician. She also established herself in the community and as a longtime member of her neighbourhood watch committee, which helped her win acceptance and laid the groundwork for her election. "My neighbours know me as Adela, the nurse," Hernandez said. "Sexual preference does not determine whether you are a revolutionary or not. That comes from within." As an elected official she promised to campaign for her constituents' interests, but said she also wanted to be a voice for gay rights. "I represent a community but I will always keep in mind the defence of gays," Hernandez said.
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