[syndicate] //\// .....to get off the real story for a moment.....

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_5230000/ 
newsid_5236700/nb_rm_5236744.stm
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              .another dose of image + text as ends unravel[tm]
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Ailing Castro Relinquishes Power for Now

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: August 1, 2006

HAVANA, July 31 — Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished his  
presidential powers to his brother Raúl on Monday night and told Cubans  
he had undergone surgery.

The Cuban leader said he had suffered gastrointestinal bleeding,  
apparently as a result of stress from recent public appearances in  
Argentina and Cuba, according to the letter read live on television by  
his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga.

“The operation obligates me to undertake several weeks of rest,” the  
letter read, adding that extreme stress “had provoked in me a sharp  
intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obligated me to undergo  
a complicated surgical procedure.”

Mr. Castro said he was temporarily relinquishing the presidency to his  
younger brother and successor Raúl Castro, the defense minister, but  
said the move was of “a provisional character.”

The elder Mr. Castro asked that celebrations scheduled for his 80th  
birthday on Aug. 13 be postponed until Dec. 2, the 50th anniversary of  
Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Mr. Castro said he would also temporarily relinquish his duties as  
first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba to Raúl Castro, who  
turned 75 in June and has been taking on a more public profile in  
recent weeks.

In power since the triumph of the Cuban revolution on Jan. 1, 1959, Mr.  
Castro has been the world’s longest-ruling head of government. Only  
Queen Elizabeth, crowned in 1952, has been a head of state longer.

In Old Havana, waiters at a popular cafe were momentarily stunned as  
they watched the news. But they quickly got back to work and put on  
brave faces.

“He’ll get better, without a doubt,” said Agustín López, 40. “There are  
really good doctors here, and he’s extremely strong.”

Inés César, a retired 58-year-old metal worker, had gathered with  
neighbors to discuss the news. “We’re really sad, and pretty shocked,”  
she said. “But everyone’s relaxed, too. I think he’ll be fine.”

When asked about how she felt about having Raúl Castro at the helm of  
the nation, Ms. César paused and said one word: “normal.”

Mr. Castro rose to power after an armed revolution he led drove out  
then-President Fulgencio Batista.

The United States was the first country to recognize Mr. Castro, but  
his radical economic reforms and rapid trials of Batista supporters  
quickly unsettled American leaders.

Washington eventually imposed a trade embargo on the island and severed  
diplomatic ties. Mr. Castro seized American property and businesses and  
turned to the Soviet Union for military and economic assistance.

On April 16, 1961, Mr. Castro declared his revolution to be socialist.  
The next day, he humiliated the United States by capturing more than  
1,100 exile soldiers in the Bay of Pigs invasion.

The world neared nuclear conflict on Oct. 22, 1962, when President  
Kennedy announced that there were Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.  
After a tense week of diplomacy, the Soviet leader, Nikita S.  
Khrushchev, removed them.

Talk of Mr. Castro’s mortality was long taboo on the island, but that  
ended on June 23, 2001, when he fainted during a speech in the sun.  
Although Mr. Castro quickly returned to the stage, many Cubans  
understood for the first time that their leader would one day die.

Mr. Castro typically laughed off rumors about his health.

“They have tried to kill me off so many times,” Mr. Castro said in a  
November 2005 speech, adding he felt “better than ever.”

But he also said he would not insist on remaining in power if he ever  
became too sick to lead.