Castro calls Brown racist against Obama

It hasn't been an easy week for Gordon Brown, what with the resignation of his former aide Damian McBride over the Tory smear scandal. Now Fidel Castro (pictured) has joined the Prime Minister's critics.

Penning his thoughts on the global economic downturn and the state of Europe's energy requirements in Reflexiones de Fidel, his regular column for the state newspaper Granma, the aging revolutionary laid into Brown's behaviour at the G20 summit.

"According to highly credible sources, on April 4th, during the London Summit presided over by Gordon Brown, the host of the event, the British prime minister behaved in a visibly contemptuous manner towards the Third World participants. He even treated Obama with prejudice due to the fact that he was black."

With relations between Cuba and America thawing, Castro has taken to frequently praising Obama in his columns. In one, he praised the new President's response to the threat of global warming, "There are other extremely grave problems such as climate change, and the current president of the United States has decided to cooperate in that problem which is vital to humanity. We should acknowledge that."

In his latest column - the piece in which he criticised Brown - Fidel signed off with the slogan: "The world does not rest.  Neither does Obama." ·