The 58-year-old ruler’s spokesman said that Goodluck Jonathan, the vice president granted full interim powers by parliament two weeks ago, would continue to run state affairs while Yar’Adua recuperated.

The president’s unexpected return came as Jonathan was beginning to assert himself in Nigeria’s treacherous political terrain, prompting suggestions that the Yar’Adua camp, led by his wife, had rushed the president back in a bid to keep his deputy from consolidating power.

Johnnie Carson, U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said in a statement Wednesday, “We hope that President Yar’Adua’s return to Nigeria is not an effort by his senior advisers to upset Nigeria’s stability and create renewed uncertainty in the democratic process.”

– Financial Times

CUBA

President ‘laments’ dissident’s death

Cuban President Raúl Castro issued an unprecedented statement of regret Wednesday over the death of a jailed dissident after a lengthy hunger strike, a case that has sparked condemnation in Washington and Europe.

“Raúl Castro laments the death of Cuban prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died after conducting a hunger strike,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that any reports that the man was tortured or mistreated in jail were false. Zapata Tamayo, who died Tuesday, was protesting what he said were poor prison conditions.

The Cuban leader blamed the United States for Zapata Tamayo’s death but did not elaborate.