The World - News from July 12, 1987

An Egyptian doctor performed “urgent surgery” on Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana, an Egyptian newspaper reported, adding that the operation was successful. The report in Al Ahram said Dr. Ahmed Shafik, who specializes in rectal surgery, operated on the 60-year-old Castro, but it gave no information on the nature of the surgery, its seriousness or when it occurred. The semiofficial newspaper said the Cuban government requested Shafik’s assistance on the advice of American doctors “because he specializes in the surgery needed by Castro.”