Fidel Castro in first TV interview since June
 
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:50:14 -0500 (CDT)

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2144098020070921

Fidel Castro in first TV interview since June
Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:36pm EDT
By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro gave his first television
interview in more than three months on Friday, state television said,
easing speculation that the ailing revolutionary had died or suffered a
relapse.

Castro, 81, speaking slowly, appeared little changed from the last time he
gave an interview to Cuban state television in early June.

Television presenter Randy Alonso said the nearly hour-long taped
interview, which aired on Friday evening, took place earlier in the day.

Castro, who took power in a 1959 revolution, handed over control to his
brother Raul Castro on July 31, 2006 after he underwent emergency
intestinal surgery, and he has not appeared in public since then.

He has been seen in occasional photographs and videos with visiting
foreign leaders and has produced a steady of columns and essays printed by
state media over the past six months.

But his failure to appear on his birthday on August 13 fueled already
rampant rumors in Miami -- the heartland of exiled opposition to his near
five-decade-long rule -- that he had had a major health setback, was on
his deathbed or had already died.

) Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.