Havana

Cuban President Fidel Castro’s state of health loomed over a summit of non-aligned nations on Friday at which Iran and other prominent opponents of United States policy sought to forge a united front. State television showed Castro standing up briefly to greet friend and ally Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan President, on Thursday.

Most Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations firmly oppose terrorism and understand the United States’ grief over the September 11 terror strikes, a top South African diplomat said on Monday. ”No grievance justifies the type of action that we saw five years ago,” Ayanda Ntsaluba told reporters in Havana.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro said he has put the worst of his health crisis behind him and will be able to receive foreign dignitaries in private during a summit of the Nonaligned Movement of developing nations next week. Castro (80) said he lost 18,6kg in a few days after undergoing emergency surgery to stop intestinal bleeding caused by an unexpected health problem on July 26.

Tropical Storm Ernesto was moving towards south Florida on Tuesday — the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina — after soaking Cuba with heavy rain. Florida residents lined up for supplies with the approach of Ernesto, which could strengthen over the warm waters of the Florida Straits.

Hurricane Ernesto weakened to a tropical storm after killing at least one person in Haiti on Sunday and forecasters said it could regain hurricane strength as it barreled toward south-eastern Cuba and the Florida Keys. Florida declared a state of emergency and ordered tourists out of the vulnerable Keys as Ernesto brought a reminder of the perils of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Cubans wished Fidel Castro a happy 80th birthday on Sunday even though the ailing leader has not been seen or heard in public since ceding power to his brother two weeks ago after stomach surgery. ”Fidel, Fidel, long live Fidel,” chanted young Cubans at a birthday concert on Havana’s Malecon seafront boulevard where 3 000 gathered.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.