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HAVANA (AP) - Acting President Raul Castro made a surprise appearance Thursday at the opening of Havana's annual international book fair — an event his ailing brother Fidel had often attended in past years.
The younger Castro, who was accompanied by Culture Minister Abel Prieto, greeted other members of Cuba's caretaker government, including Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, Vice President Carlos Lage, and National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon.
Fidel Castro stunned Cuba with a July 31 announcement that he had undergone intestinal surgery and was provisionally ceding power to his younger brother. Since then, Raul Castro has led a collaborative leadership that has kept the government running calmly in his brother's absence.
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