quote[Cuban President Fidel Castro, who ruled a communist country on the doorstep of the United States for nearly 50 years, stepped down temporarily after intestinal surgery and handed over power for the first time to his brother, state television announced.
The news sparked street dancing in the Cuban exile district of Miami where Castro's enemies, backed by the United States, yearn for the demise of the West's only communist government and celebrated the clearest sign yet of his failing health.
It was the first time Castro, who will be 80 on August 13, handed over the reins of power since he took office in 1959.
In Cuba, where Castro's guerrillas swept down from the Sierra Maestra hills to overthrow a dictator, word he had been operated on for intestinal bleeding brought uncertainty over the political future of the island nation of 11 million.
Castro said in a statement read out on television that he overexerted himself this month on a trip to a summit of South American leaders in Argentina and celebrations of his 1953 assault on a military garrison.
"This caused an acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obliged me to face a complicated surgical operation," he said in the "proclamation" read out on Monday night by his personal aide, Carlos Valenciaga.]
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
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