on the horizon
, and a cloud of smoke now hanging over another part of Homs, which seems to suggest that shelling of some description has resumed. As we came into the city earlier this afternoon, we heard of a lot of heavy machine gun fire, and there were a lot of unexplained explosions. Parts of Homs - those parts which oppose the regime - are now virtually cut off, and we have to come in using a very
elaborate
route escorted by activists who are bringing in medical supplies and bringing in fresh blood donated a few hours earlier in the villages around Homs.
More than 50,000 protesters opposed to the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have demonstrated in Moscow despite bitterly cold weather. They called for political reform. Supporters of the Russian leader held their own rally.
The former Cuban President Fidel Castro has made a rare public appearance to launch his
memoirs
called Guerrilla of Time. Fidel had not been seen in public since April last year. Vanessa Buschschluter has the details.
Wearing a tracksuit jacket and a checkered shirt, Fidel seemed animated and laughed as he
reminisced
about his early life. This first instalment of his recollections runs to 1,000 pages in two volumes, but it only takes the story up to December 1958 - the eve of the revolution. The director of the Cuban Writers' Union, Miguel Barnet, said it made vivid reading. But like many storytellers, it seems the old revolutionary is saving the real action for later. Vanessa Buschschluter reporting.