Cuba declares official mourning for N Korea's Kim

HAVANA: Cuba declared three days of mourning Monday for North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, a reliable ally as Havana has grown increasingly isolated since the end of the Cold War.

"Cuba's Council of State has declared official mourning due to the passing of comrade Kim Jong-Il," an official statement said, noting that Cuba's flag would be flown at half staff Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Cuba and North Korea are among the world's five communist nations. And Cuba is the only one-party Communist regime in the Americas.

Elizardo Sanchez, who leads the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation rights watchdog, told reporters defiantly that he would not be mourning Kim, calling him a "bad man" who "committed horrible crimes against his people."