Tired-looking Castro on TV

The ailing Fidel Castro appeared on Cuban state television for the first time in more than a month Saturday, looking thin and tired but walking around and ridiculing recent rumors of his death.

The 80-year-old Cuban leader, who temporarily ceded power to his brother Raul in July following intestinal surgery, had not been seen since mid-September. He was shown walking slowly but steadily in an unidentified room and reading in a loud voice from Saturday’s edition of Granma, the Communist Party daily newspaper.

He called rumors of his death ridiculous and insulting, claiming they were the work of his enemies.

CLICHY-SOUS-BOIS, France

Vehicles torched as riots return

Marauding youths torched hundreds of vehicles overnight and on Saturday in renewed violence coinciding with the first anniversary of riots that exposed a deep schism between poor North African immigrants and mainstream France.

A group of teenagers set one bus on fire Saturday in the southern French port city of Marseille, seriously wounding a passenger. Three others suffered from smoke inhalation, police said. Two other public buses and 277 vehicles around the country were burned overnight, police said.

Six police were injured and 47 people were arrested, ministry officials said.

RAFAH, Egypt

Soldiers mass near Gaza border

Up to 5,000 Egyptian soldiers deployed near the Egypt-Gaza border Saturday after reports of a possible Israeli “smart bomb” attack on suspected smuggling tunnels, security officials said.

Troops fanned out across the northern Sinai peninsula, patrolling roads in and out of border towns and setting up checkpoints, an Egyptian interior ministry official said in Cairo.

Last week, Israel said it had uncovered 15 tunnels burrowed under the Egypt-Gaza border, where militants are suspected of smuggling weapons and other contraband to use in attacks against Israel.

The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported Friday that Israel planned to use precision-guided weapons to destroy the tunnels. But the Egyptian interior ministry official denied the massing of troops was in response to the report.