A week after surgery forced him to put his brother in charge of the island he has dominated for 47 years, Cuban leader Fidel Castro remained out of sight and out of power, but was said to be on the road to recovery. Cuban officials and Latin American allies said the 79-year-old former guerrilla fighter was recuperating from gastric surgery but faced weeks of convalescence.
Cuba’s communist government said on Friday that Raul Castro was firmly in charge of the country but uncertainty over its political future grew as the acting president still did not appear in public. The Granma newspaper provided no new details on the condition of ailing leader Fidel Castro four days after he handed over power temporarily to his brother.
Fidel Castro told his people he was in good spirits and stable after surgery that has raised speculation his illness might be the beginning of the end of his 47-year rule. Days short of his 80th birthday, Castro issued a statement on Tuesday playing down talk he might be at death’s door after an operation to halt stomach bleeding that forced him to temporarily relinquish power to his 75-year-old brother, Raul.
Fidel Castro, who took control of Cuba in 1959, rebuffed repeated United States attempts to oust him and survived communism’s demise almost everywhere else, temporarily relinquished his presidential powers to his brother Raul on Monday night because of surgery.
No image available
/ 24 October 2005
Massive waves churned up by Hurricane Wilma crashed into Cuba’s capital city early on Monday, flooding the Malecon coastal highway and seeping into nearby neighbourhoods of old, crumbling buildings. The ocean penetrated up to four blocks into Havana’s coastal neighbourhoods.
No image available
/ 28 September 2005
Americans are travelling to Cuba in dramatically fewer numbers and at the same time United States fines against those who come without permission are on the rise, the Cuban government said as it launched its annual international campaign against the decades-old US embargo.
Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer was buried on Monday as fans mourned the passing of the Buena Vista Social Club crooner, who died just days after coming back from a tour in Europe. About 200 relatives and friends attended the simple but evocative ceremony at Havana’s Colon cemetery, during which Ferrer’s bolero Mil congojas played in the background.
Ibrahim Ferrer, who achieved fame late in life as the singer of the Buena Vista Social Club, died on Saturday in Havana at the age of 78. Ferrer, known for his trademark cap and greying moustache, was a devotee of traditional styles of Cuban music such as son and bolero.
Hurricane Dennis gathered strength again on Saturday as it moved over the Gulf of Mexico away from Cuba, where it killed 10 people and left 1,5-million homeless, after causing five deaths in Haiti. It is expected to wreak havoc with a swipe at the Florida Keys, which have been put under a hurricane warning.
Hurricane Dennis pummelled Cuba on Friday, killing 10 people and displacing 1,5-million others, President Fidel Castro announced, after its fierce winds and heavy rains left another five dead in Haiti. Cuban authorities had rushed more than 700 000 people into shelters overnight, including at least 2 500 tourists.
Cuba on Friday braced for the arrival of an increasingly dangerous Hurricane Dennis after the storm dumped rain on Jamaica, while Florida authorities issued a state of emergency and ordered first evacuations. The storm looks set to hit the central part of the island with winds in excess of 215kph and pounding rain.
No image available
/ 21 October 2004
President Fidel Castro, Cuba’s leader for more than 45 years, broke his left knee and his right arm in a fall, and urged the Caribbean country’s population of 11-million to stay calm, a government statement said on Thursday. TV cameras captured the incident on Wednesday when the leader stumbled as he was descending a flight of stairs.
No image available
/ 15 September 2004
Elma Garcia laughed in resignation as she held the cold-water tap from her sink — the only thing left from her bathroom in one of few populated areas near the westernmost tip of Cuba that Hurricane Ivan grazed on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. ”We thought that when it was all over there would be nothing left,” Garcia said.
No image available
/ 14 September 2004
Hurricane Ivan sliced through the western tip of Cuba late on Monday, tearing off roofs, triggering mudslides and hurtling toward the Gulf of Mexico and the United States coast after killing at least 71 in the Caribbean. Ivan’s eye made landfall at Cape San Antonio late on Monday and took about three hours to cross the western tip of Cuba.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&ao=122138">Ivan pushes up oil prices</a>
Cuba on Friday slammed United States plans to tighten sanctions on the communist country as ”cruel and cowardly”, with the Communist Party insisting it will stand strong against US President George Bush’s ”putrid ideology”. Bush on Thursday endorsed a plan to ”hasten” Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s departure.
No image available
/ 24 February 2004
Amnesty International and two other leading human rights organisations are protesting to the Pentagon about its decision not to let them attend the planned trials of al-Qaida suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
No image available
/ 25 September 2003
With its long snout and tiny body covered with spiky, long brown hair, the worm-munching creature known as Solenodon cubanus long has been a mystery to zoologists, who believed it to be extinct. But a farmer in eastern Cuba has found the first live specimen seen in four years.