Cuban President Raul Castro to retire in 2018

Cuban President Raul Castro announced that he will stand down at the end of his second term in 2018, following his re-election by the National Assembly. The 86-year-old Fidel Castro, who was in power for five decades, made a rare public appearance at the opening session of the assembly in the capital Havana. Addressing the assembly following his re-election on Sunday, Raul Castro said: "This will be my last term." "I was not chosen to be president to restore capitalism to Cuba. I was elected to defend, maintain and continue to perfect socialism, not destroy it," he stressed. Castro formally assumed the presidency in 2008 - two years after replacing his ailing brother Fidel. The Communist assembly, whose members ran for office unopposed, also chose Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez as Castro's first vice-president. Diaz-Canel, 52, is widely seen as Raul Castro's successor.