Castro welcomes New Year at filling station
January 01 2006 at 03:09PM
Havana - President Fidel Castro marked the 47th anniversary of his rise to power on Sunday, welcoming the New Year at a Havana gas station with youth volunteers on duty to deter theft.
Wearing his usual olive green military fatigues, Castro, 79, sang the national anthem and chatted with the volunteers, part of a squad of 10 000 set up in October in response to persistent problems of theft of vital resources.
The youths, in T-shirts reading "social worker", also carry out other tasks for the Americas' only communist government, such as going door-to-door to replace ordinary light bulbs with efficient ones, part of a government energy savings campaign.
IOL: Castro welcomes New Year at filling station
