Castro misses birthday ceremony

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has stayed away from the opening ceremony of his 80th birthday celebrations in Havana on doctors' orders.

A message apparently written by Mr. Castro was read out saying he was not yet strong enough to attend the event. President Castro underwent emergency intestinal surgery at the end of July and has not been seen in public since.

He then temporarily handed over power to his brother Raul, and was last seen in a video on 28 October. The festivities had been originally scheduled for August but were postponed. They were rescheduled around 2 December, the 50th anniversary of the day Mr. Castro and others landed in Cuba to start a guerrilla movement and eventually seize power in 1959.Among those expected to attend are Bolivian President Evo Morales and the Colombian Nobel laureate, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Up to 5,000 people were packed into Havana's Karl Marx theatre for the start of several days of events marking Mr. Castro's 80th birthday.

The build-up to the celebrations were dominated by concerns over whether the president would be able to appear in public. But in a note read from the stage to widespread applause, Mr. Castro said his doctors had advised him not to appear before such a large crowd.

"It was only in the Karl Marx theatre that all guests could be seated but, according to the doctors, I was not yet ready for such a challenging engagement," he said. The note did not rule out the possibility that he might appear at one or more of the many smaller events planned for later this week. "I sign off with the great pain of not having been able to personally give you thanks and hugs to each and every one of you," the note read.

-BBC