Fidel makes rare public appearance

Cuba’s former leader, Fidel Castro has made a rare public appearance since falling ill four years ago, in a visit to a Havana scientific facility.

New pictures show the smiling 83-year-old Castro greeting workers at the National Center of Scientific Investigations in Havana, Reuters reported Saturday of a visit paid on last week.

The images were taken by a worker on Wednesday and were later posted on a weblog, the report added.

Castro appears slightly stooped, but healthy in the four pictures.

The former Cuban leader had not been photographed in public since he fell ill in July 2006, the same year he handed over power to his younger brother, Raul.

Castro toppled a US-backed dictator in 1959, and ruled Cuba for 49 years.

The news comes the same day Cuba began releasing a group of political prisoners, journalists and activists, as part of a Vatican-brokered deal to free 52 of them.