Cuba Trots Out New Castro Photos Amid Health Rumors

Fidel Castro is apparently spending his retirement convincing people he's alive: After his silence when the US and Cuba reopened relations spawned rumors about his failing health or even death, he belatedly penned a Jan. 26 letter, AFP reports. Now Cuban state media has released more than 20 photos that show the ex-leader meeting with university student Randy Perdomo Garcia, who wrote for the Communist Party newspaper Granma that Castro was "full of life" during the Jan. 23 visit, the AP reports. Perdomo says he met with the 88-year-old revolutionary for more than three hours at Castro's home, during which they chatted about astronomy, world issues, and Castro's exercise routine, USA Today reports. The photos, which show Castro hunched over but "animated," per Reuters, are the first official pictures of him since August. (More Fidel Castro stories.)