Dubai  - Dubai launched Wednesday an initiative aimed at providing preventive eye care for over one million people in an effort to eradicate blindness.

The ruler of the booming Gulf emirate, Mohamed bin Rashed al-Maktoum, said in a statement read on his behalf at the launch of the initiative that he would fund treatment for people in the United Arab Emirates and the world.

Washington 

Havana  - Hurricane Gustav hit Cuba like an atomic bomb last weekend, said the island's ailing former leader Fidel Castro.

In a commentary published under his name in the Communist Party daily Granma on Wednesday, Castro said the storm caused damages estimated at many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This amount would be needed only to satisfy the most elementary needs of the population, the 82-year-old former president said under the headline "A Nuclear Blow."

Dhaka  - The military-backed interim government in Bangladesh set free Wednesday the jailed elder son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia who was held for more than a year on charges of corruption, judicial officials said.

"Tarique Rahman has been released temporarily on medical grounds as several specialist doctors had recommended his treatment abroad," said deputy prison chief Shamsul Haider Siddiqui.

Amman - The Jordanian cabinet on Tuesday endorsed for the first time financial help to the country's fledging political parties as part of the drive to upgrade the political life in the Hashemite Kingdom.

The decision provides for paying 50,000 dinars (70,000 dollars) annually to each of the country's 16 political parties, including the country's largest and only organized political party according to Western standards, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), according to the Interior Minister Eid al-Fayez.