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Cubans woke up Tuesday to news that Fidel Castro is stepping down as president and commander in chief. The announcement came overnight in a letter published online. In the letter, he tells Cubans his only wish "is to fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas."

Early results show the two largest opposition political parties in Pakistan headed for an election victory after voters rejected the ruling party of President Pervez Musharraf. Husain Haqqani, director of Boston University's Center for International Relations, talks about the results.

A presidential transition is apparently underway in Cuba. Fidel Castro, who has already given up power temporarily because of illness, says he will do so permanently.

Pakistanis dealt a crushing blow to President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections Monday, raising questions about the future of the U.S. ally in the war on terror. Early returns indicate that the opposition parties of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have won enough to command a majority.

Fidel Castro announced his resignation overnight in a letter online. The news won't be a shock to many Cubans, who are used to the idea that he is about to retire. The dictator has been sidelined due to illness for the past 18 months. The BBC's Cuba correspondent, Michael Voss, talks about the news.

After nearly 50 years as president of Cuba, Fidel Castro is resigning. He explained his decision in a letter to the Web site of the Communist Party's newspaper. The Cuban president hasn't been seen in public since he became ill and provisionally turned over his powers to his brother, Raul, in July 2006.

A temporary version of the law allowing intelligence agencies to conduct surveillance of terrorism suspects without a warrant expired Saturday. A key sticking point is whether to grant retroactive immunity to telecom companies that cooperate with the government.

Hercules, a slave of George Washington, and James Hemings, owned by Thomas Jefferson, began a long connection of presidents and their African-American cooks. And President Lyndon Johnson's black cook may have influenced his work on civil rights reform.

As a girl, Peggy Orenstein may have spent her summers in Wisconsin, but her heart was often farther east. She recounts her love for Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and its hard, touching lessons about the difference between what is right and what is true.

The iconic villain Darth Vader has it all: heavy breathing; theme music; brute physical and mental power; and that impenetrable mask. In Vader's case, the mask shields his humanity, making him appear gothic and machine-like.