The designated heir is General Raul Castro, Fidel's brother and head of the armed forces.

ECONOMIST: What follows Fidel?

Last week, Gandhi's political heir, Sonia Gandhi, resigned as president of the Congress party four months before a general election.

ECONOMIST: India

Spitzer considered himself an heir of reformers such as Theodore Roosevelt, whose portrait he kept in his office as attorney general, Masters wrote in her biography.

CNN: Future of Spitzer, dubbed 'Eliot Ness,' suddenly cloudy