WORLD IN BRIEF: Cuba offers U.S. a swap of prisoners

Cuban President Raul Castro made an unprecedented offer Thursday to exchange political dissidents jailed in his country for five Cubans imprisoned in the U.S. for espionage.

Castro, on his first official visit to Brazil, also reiterated Cuba’s willingness to discuss the United States’ 46-year-old economic embargo with incoming President Barack Obama.

Answering a reporter’s question about political prisoners in Cuba, Castro said he would consider releasing some as a gesture to opening talks with the new administration. But he said the U.S. would need to reciprocate by freeing the so-called “Cuban Five,” who were convicted in 2001.

President George W. Bush has taken a hard line against Cuba and would not consider such a trade. State Department spokeswoman Heidi Bronke said the jailed dissidents should be released immediately without conditions.

Beijing’s reforms won’t model West

Chinese Communist Party leader Hu Jintao, speaking in the same hall where his predecessors launched a free-market revolution 30 years ago, urged more economic reform but said it would not lead to Western-style democracy. In a 90-minute, nationally televised address during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the reforms, Hu credited “socialism with Chinese characteristics” for the country’s success —- a catchphrase for jettisoning the centrally planned economy while maintaining strict authoritarian rule. “We need to draw on the beneficial fruits of mankind’s political achievements, but we will never copy the model of the Western political system,” he said.

Hamas refuses to extend cease-fire

Two Hamas officials said the group, which rules the Gaza Strip, would not extend a six-month truce with the Israelis as militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets at southern Israel and Israel hit back with airstrikes. Hamas said previously that the cease-fire ends today, but Israel maintained the unwritten truce did not have an expiration date.

Fugitive ex-leader called to face law

Thailand’s new prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, called for fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra to return home to face justice and bring closure to months of political turmoil that has revolved around him. A Thai court in October convicted Thaksin in absentia of violating a conflict of interest law while in office and sentenced him to two years in prison. There are several pending corruption cases against Thaksin, a former telecommunications tycoon who was ousted in a 2006 coup but continues to loom over Thai politics.

Cholera deaths in Zimbabwe hit 1,111

The cholera death toll in Zimbabwe has risen to 1,111, the United Nations said. The latest figures, which are compiled by the World Health Organization, also show that the number of cases has risen to 20,581 since the start of the cholera outbreak in August. The U.N. agency says lack of clean drinking water and sanitation continues to be a problem, as well as the southern African country’s crumbling health service and a strike by nurses.

Bombs kill two in Philippine city

Two crude bombs packed with nails exploded minutes apart Thursday at a department store and a nearby clothing shop packed with Christmas shoppers in the southern Philippines, killing two people and wounding 48, officials said. No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts in Iligan, a predominantly Christian city, but officials have blamed Muslim rebels for similar attacks in the volatile region in the past few months.

One of last Franco statues removed

Crews with jackhammers in the city of Santander removed one of Spain’s last statues of the late Gen. Francisco Franco, eliminating a symbol of his right-wing dictatorship. Many such symbols of Franco, who ruled from 1939 until his death in 1975, have been taken down over the years since democracy was formally restored in Spain in 1978. Once this statue is gone, one will be left in public view —- in Melilla, a Spanish city on the coast of North Africa.