Cigar legend Alejandro Robaina dies

HAVANA, Cuba - Cuban tobacco legend Alejandro Robaina, known in international cigar circles for producing the best of his country's famous tobacco leaves, died on Saturday at the age of 91, a family friend said.

Robaina, the only Cuban grower with a cigar bearing his name, had been in ill health after being diagnosed with cancer last year and had declined in recent days, said Sergio Hernandez, a cigar distributor living in Havana.

He died at his modest home on his 40-acre (16 hectare) farm near the town of San Luis in Cuba's Vuelta Abajo tobacco region near the western city of Pinar del Rio.