Saturday marked the Cuban Revolution's 56^th birthday and Raul Castro's third time in celebrating the event with a televised speech. One of our Observers there, Yoani Sanchez, watched the speech on her TV at home. Here are her thoughts...

Granma, Cuba's official news site, has just announced that Fidel Castro has given up his presidency of the country. On hearing the news we immediately called our Observer in Havana, blogger Yoani Sanchez, to get her reaction. As the news had not yet been broadcast on Cuban TV or radio, Sanchez was unaware of the declaration and gave an initial reaction of "a sense of relief". She said she believes that the Cuban system could now evolve into something similar to the Chinese regime. Read more...

Granma's front page on Tuesday morning.