Former Cuban president Fidel Castro has died at age 90

HAVANA (AP) - Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has died at age 90. He defied 10 U.S. presidents during a 50-year reign and survived a crippling U.S. trade embargo.

Castro's reign over the island-nation 90 miles from Florida was also marked by the failed, U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.

With a shaking voice, President Raul Castro said on state television that his older brother died at 10:29 p.m. Friday. He ended the announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: "Towards victory, always!"

Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba and embraced Soviet-style communism, had a reign marked by the failed, U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. The bearded revolutionary survived a crippling U.S. trade embargo as well as dozens, possibly hundreds, of assassination plots.

He survived long enough to see Raul Castro negotiate an agreement with U.S. President Barack Obama to move to restore diplomatic ties for the first time since they were severed in 1961.