Former Cuban president Fidel Castro has claimed it is a "pure miracle" that US presidential candidate Barack Obama has not been assassinated.

Mr Castro also accused American society of being marked by "profound racism", as he put in his two pennies worth on the race, ahead of the election on November 4.

He wrote: "Millions of whites cannot reconcile in their minds with the idea that a black man with his wife and children would move into the White House, which is called just like that - White".

He added that it was a "pure miracle" the Illinois senator, who became the first black politician to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, had not been killed up to now.

The ailing Cuban communist leader described Mr Obama as a politician who "has the habit of looking at his opponent with serenity and laughing at his rhetorical attacks."

Mr Castro also mocked Republican candidate John McCain for his apparent poor grades at a naval academy and said the party's vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin "knew nothing at all about anything."

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