World Briefs

HAVANA – Cuban President Raul Castro said in an interview released Wednesday that he would like to meet President-elect Barack Obama on "neutral ground" — and he suggested the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

The Cuban leader's offer came in a rare interview in Havana with actor-director Sean Penn, who wrote about it for the Dec. 15 edition of The Nation magazine. The article was released on the magazine's Web site Wednesday.

Penn asked if Castro would meet with Obama in Washington. The Cuban president said he "would have to think about it," but that it would not be fair for either leader to go to the other's territory. Instead he suggested the base at Guantanamo. "We must meet and begin to solve our problems, and at the end of the meeting.”

CARACAS, Venezuela – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to help Venezuela start a nuclear energy program on Wednesday as President Hugo Chavez hailed Moscow's deepening ties in Latin America as a reflection of declining U.S. influence.

It was the first visit to Venezuela by a Russian president, and it came as Medvedev's government raises its profile in a region long dominated by Washington. Medvedev arrived from Brazil, where he announced an upcoming summit with China, India and Brazil to create new rules for the global economy.

In Caracas, Russian and Venezuelan officials signed a series of accords, including one pledging cooperation in nuclear energy for peaceful uses. Russia also agreed to work with Venezuela in oil projects and building ships. Chavez, one of Latin America's most outspoken critics of Washington's foreign policy, thanked Medvedev.

BERLIN – A 104-year-old Dutch-born entertainer who made his name performing in Hitler's Germany began a lawsuit Thursday to clear himself of allegations he sang for SS guards at the Dachau concentration camp.

Johannes Heesters acknowledges he visited the camp outside Munich in 1941, but brought a civil suit to have a German author and documentary filmmaker retract statements that he entertained SS troops while there.

"It never happened," Heesters said in a lengthy statement explaining his connections to Nazi-era Germany on his Web site. Heesters' attorney, Gunter Fette, told the three-judge panel his client had been ordered to go to the camp by the Nazis in an attempt to deceive the public about what was really going on inside.

"It is well known that sort of thing happened, where people were brought in to give a positive picture — prominent people who could then go and tell their impressions to others," Fette said.