AILING Cuban leader Fidel Castro said in a new statement which was released yesterday that he has lost more than 41 pounds in about a month since undergoing intestinal surgery but he added the “most critical moment has been left behind”.

Fidel Castro warned President George Bush today against launching a military attack on Cuba if the current American measures aimed at dislodging him don’t succeed, saying it would provoke a mass exodus and an all-out ground war.

Cuban officials who travelled to regions hit by Hurricane Michelle have found vast destruction, with sugar mills wrecked, crops ruined and hundreds of homes destroyed.

Fidel Castro has led more than a million people on a march marking the start of the Cuban revolution nearly a half-century ago.