These are excerpts from editorials from newspapers from around the world:

The Star, Johannesburg, South Africa, on Cuba

No one sits on the fence when Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro is concerned — he is either a terrorist and agent provocateur par excellence, or a liberator effused with a messianic zeal.

The ailing Cuban leader said yesterday that he will not return to lead his country, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution. Castro (81), who has not appeared in public since undergoing stomach surgery almost 19 months ago, said he would not seek a new term as the communist country's president or as military commander in chief when the National Assembly meets on Sunday.

Condemned by the West as a dictator, Castro is much admired in the Third World for standing up to the United States and providing free education and healthcare in his impoverished country. Closer to home, he sent more than 350,000 Cuban troops to fight against Unita and South African forces in Angola, leading to Namibian independence in February 1990 and hastening to the end of apartheid and our own freedom in 1994.

It needs to be admitted that Castro's Cold War alignment with the former Soviet Union helped push the world closer than it ever had been to nuclear war. It is still early to predict if Castro's stepping aside with make any difference to the poverty-stricken Cubans at home or in the diaspora.

Gulf News, United Arab Emirates, on Pakistan

The labour of any democratic process is long and demanding, and Pakistan is no exception to the rule. There is no question that the recent parliamentary elections were decisive as far as the future of the country is concerned. But what is more important here is how the nation will move forward in the right direction.

Perhaps a majority vote for the opposition parties was expected, and did not come as a surprise. The country last year experienced major events including the return of opposition party leaders Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. Then there was the assassination of the latter, President Musharraf's giving up his military uniform, and the bombings that have affected the security situation throughout the year. There is no doubt that all these events have left a great impact on the political scene.

Pakistan today faces grave challenges, both on the internal as well as the external fronts. For one thing, there is a general lack of stability, unity, and consensus, which are critical for building the country's institutions and civil society. Holding an election is just a part of a larger framework that seeks to facilitate the democratic process. The first step to bringing about such changes has already been set in motion and this should be built on and taken forward.