CUBA'S 'NATIONAL POET' DIES

Cuban poet Nicolas Guillen, who introduced the rhythms of African and Latin music into verse and was one of Latin America's best known writers, has died at age 87, Cuba's official news agency announced. The man known as Cuba's "national poet" died Sunday in Cuba after a long illness that resulted in the amputation last month of his left leg, Prensa Latina said. The agency said Guillen had also suffered from advanced arteriosclerosis and Parkinson's disease. Guillen's work celebrated Cuba's multiracial and ethnic mix as well as the 1959 Communist revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power. For more than 25 years he was director of Cuba's Union of Writers and Artists. Prensa Latina said word of his death sent a "shock wave" through Cuba's people, many of whom know his verses by heart. Prensa Latina said Guillen's body would lie in state for two days in the Plaza of the Revolution and a public funeral will be held on Tuesday.