Cuba mourns revolutionary leader Fidel Castro

Cuba mourned revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Sunday as the communist island prepared to say its last goodbye to the towering giant of its modern history with mass memorials and a four-day funeral procession.

After the stunned commotion surrounding Saturday's announcement that Castro had died at age 90, Sunday was set to be a day of calm preparations, with no official activities planned.

Castro, whose iron-fisted rule defied the US for half a century, died late Friday after surviving 11 US administrations and hundreds of assassination attempts. The authorities did not give a cause of death.

The polarising leader, a titan of the 20th century who beat the odds to endure well into the 21st, was to be cremated yesterday, the first of nine days of national mourning.

A series of memorials will begin on Monday, when Cubans are called to converge on Havana's iconic Revolution Square. Castro's ashes will then go on a four-day procession through the country, before being buried in the southeastern city of Santiago on December 4.

Santiago, Cuba's second city, was the scene of Castro's ill-fated first attempt at revolution in 1953 - six years before he succeeded in ousting US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. 

Adored by admirers as a saviour of the people, reviled by enemies as a cruel tyrant, Castro ruled Cuba from 1959 until he handed power to his younger brother Raul in 2006 amid a health crisis. 

Even then, he continued to loom large, penning diatribes against American "imperialism" in the state press and wielding influence behind the scenes. Castro is so far as divisive in death as in life.

The news drew strong - and polarised - reactions across the world. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed him as "the symbol of an era," and China's Xi Jinping said "Comrade Castro will live forever."

But in Miami, home to the largest community of exiles who fled Castro's rule, euphoric crowds erupted into loud celebration. There were sharply different reactions in the US from outgoing President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump.

Obama, who embarked on a historic rapprochement with Cuba in 2014, said the US extended a "hand of friendship" to the Cuban people.
But Trump called Castro "a brutal dictator".