Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Castro is 'extraordinarily healthy'
07-13-2006

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuban President Fidel Castro, who turns 80 next month, is an "extraordinarily healthy" man who continues to work very hard every day, parliamentary speaker Ricardo Alarcon said.

"Fidel Castro has been given this privilege: he is an extraordinarily healthy man," Alarcon told AFP in an interview. "He has always been and remains health, although that angers George W. Bush."

Alarcon rejected as "completely unfounded" rumors that surfaced recently in Venezuela about the death of the Cuban leader.

"These jokes surface from time to time and collapse," the speaker joked. "There have been so many of them that I believe that when it really happens, nobody will believe it."

Speculation about Castro's health peaked after his 2004 fall, during which he injured his right arm and left knee.

Last November, the Cuban leader, who stopped smoking cigars in 1985 and now exercises every day, said he had recovered from these injuries.