Ecuadorean troops stormed a hospital in Quito late on Thursday and rescued President Rafael Correa

Troops storm Ecuador hospital, free Correa

By Hugh Bronstein and Alexandra Valencia



Ecuadorean army soldiers stand on the runway of the military airbase
of the Mariscal Sucre International Airport
to force its closure, in Quito September 30, 2010.



(Reuters) - Ecuadorean troops stormed a hospital in Quito late on Thursday and rescued President Rafael Correa, who had been holed up surrounded by renegade police protesting against government austerity measures.

Correa arrived back at the presidential palace in the capital, where local TV images showed a large crowd of supporters cheering and waving Ecuador's flag.


Amid heavy gunfire, he had been freed after soldiers raided the building where he had spent most of the day.


Dissident police had earlier attacked Correa, prompting the 47-year-old leftist leader to seek refuge in the hospital, where he accused rivals of trying to topple him in a coup.


The U.S.-trained economist and friend of Venezuela's socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez took power in 2007, alienating foreign investors but winning approval ratings with populist policies like greater state control over natural resources.


The United Nations and governments across the Americas threw their support behind Correa, with the White House backing him and calling for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.


Global oil prices rose to a seven-week high of near $80 a barrel, partly due to the turmoil in OPEC's smallest member.

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"The empire is at the point of committing a terrible error that nobody can stop. It advances inexorably toward a sinister fate,"

"The empire is at the point of committing a terrible error that nobody can stop. It advances inexorably toward a sinister fate,"

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro sits at the National Centre for Scientific Investigation (CNIC) in Havana July 7, 2010.

Fidel Castro to appear on Cuban television and radio

(Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has lived in seclusion since falling ill four years ago, will appear on Cuban television and radio on Monday evening to discuss his theory that the world is on the verge of nuclear war, the Communist Party newspaper Granma said in its Monday online edition.

The appearance will mark the second time in less than a week that the suddenly resurgent 83-year-old has made a public appearance, after staying out of view, except in occasional photographs and videos, since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in July 2006.

Last Wednesday, he made a visit to a Havana scientific center that was disclosed in a blog on Saturday.

Castro writes opinion columns, or "Reflections," for Cuba's state-run media that in recent weeks have focused on his prediction that nuclear war will soon break out, sparked by a conflict between the United States and Iran over international sanctions against Iran's nuclear activities.

"The empire is at the point of committing a terrible error that nobody can stop. It advances inexorably toward a sinister fate," he wrote on July 5.

The "empire" is how Castro usually refers to the United States, his bitter foe from the time he took power in Cuba in a 1959 revolution.

In a column published on Sunday night, Castro said the "principal purpose" of his writings has been to "warn international public opinion of what was occurring."

He said he has reached his dire conclusion based in part on "observing what happened, as the political leader that I was during many years, confronting the empire, its blockades and its unspeakable crimes."

The columns have attracted little attention internationally and caused little reaction in Cuba, but Castro promised to continue his lonely fight to warn the world of the coming disaster.

"I don't hesitate in running risks of compromising my modest moral authority," he wrote on Sunday. "I will continue writing 'Reflections' about the topic."

Castro ruled Cuba for 49 years before provisionally ceding power to younger brother Raul Castro following his 2006 surgery.

Citing age and infirmity, he officially resigned in February 2008 and Raul Castro, now 79, was elected president by the National Assembly.

Fidel Castro's reappearance comes as Cuba is preparing to release 52 political prisoners, all jailed in a crackdown on the opposition in 2003 while he was still in power.

(Reporting by Jeff Franks; editing by Eric Beech)