Havana  - Cuban President Raul Castro on Wednesday appeared in public for the first time after hurricanes Gustav and Ike devastated the communist Caribbean island to the tune of an estimated 5 billion dollars.

"I ask that you keep your optimism, that hope. Let that spirit not fall because that would be the worst, the demoralization would set in," Castro said as he toured the Isle of Youth.

Tel Aviv  - Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has won Wednesday's primaries in Israel's ruling Kadima faction, succeeding Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as the party leader, two exit polls broadcast by Israel's main television channels predicted.

Channel 10 predicted Livni received 49 per cent of the vote, against 37 per cent for her main rival, hawkish Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz. The two other candidates, Avid Dichter and Meir Sheetrit, each received 7 per cent.

Tel Aviv  - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday evening that his decision to resign after his party elects a new leader had been painful, but added he felt "no bitterness."

"I decided to resign, with pain, not with pleasure, I must say, really with pain," a tired-looking, casually clad Olmert told a gathering of students in Israel's southern Negev desert.

Tel Aviv  - Voting in the primaries of Israel's ruling Kadima party was extended by 30 minutes Wednesday evening, after long queues were reported after work hours at a number of polling stations, Israel's Channel 10 news reported.

Polling stations are now scheduled to close at 10:30 pm (1930 GMT), and the results of exit polls commissioned by Israel's main television channels are due in shortly afterwards.

Brussels  - The European Commission is poised for a bitter battle with Europe's main footwear-exporting countries after a majority of member states Wednesday voted against extending tariffs on Chinese shoes, diplomats said.

A proposal to extend the tariffs by up to one year, the time it would take for a proposed expiry review to be completed, was rejected by officials from 15 of the EU's 27 member states.

Washington  - President George W Bush on Tuesday added Bolivia to a drugs blacklist after concluding the South American country has failed to cooperate in stemming the production and trafficking of illegal narcotics.

Bolivia joins Venezuela and Myanmar - also known as Burma - for failing to meet international obligations to curb drug trafficking, Bush said in a statement released by the White House.