MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Castro turns 79 and still going strong

Fidel Castro, the world's longest ruling head of state turns 79 Saturday, is celebrating a key political and legal victory over his enemies in exile after a U.S. appeals court ordered a new trial in the high-profile case of five alleged Cuban spies.

Self declared communist Castro, who shows no sign of thinking in retirement has been in power for 47 years, a close ally of Moscow until the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The U.S. court ruling gave Mr. Castro a boost as Cubans face tough domestic problems mainly a serious housing crisis and a collapsed electrical grid that suffers frequent and prolonged power cuts.

Since the five alleged spies conviction four years ago as unregistered agents of a foreign government, Cuba has campaigned on their behalf calling them heroes. While admitting being Cuban agents, the defendants said they were only spying on ''terrorist'' Cuban exile groups and not the U.S. government.

Mr Castro has not publicly commented on Tuesday's ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta but other communist officials called it a ''happy day'' when the court threw out the convictions and ordered a mew trial outside of Miami, where Cuban exiles and anti-Castro sentiment runs high.

No official birthday celebrations were announced in Cuba but Castro, who assumed power after the Jan. 1, 1959, but normally marks the day in a low-key manner, sometimes sharing a cake with schoolchildren.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli, asked about Castro's birthday, reiterated the U.S. position that the island needs political and economic changes, saying ''the Cuban people deserve democratic leadership every day of the year''.

Born in eastern Cuba's sugar country where his Spanish immigrant father ran a prosperous plantation, Fidel Castro Ruiz's official birthday is Aug. 13, 1926, although some say he was born a year later. His designated successor has always been his brother, Defense Secretary Raul Castro, who is five years his junior.

Castro maintains a busy schedule despite occasional rumors about his health and a fall last year that shattered a kneecap and broke his right arm. He used a wheelchair for several months before he began walking again in December.

The bearded leader dressed in his trademark olive green fatigues, still appears frequently on state television, promoting the pressure cookers that officials distributed to help electricity conservation and raging for hours against the U.S. trade embargo or Cuban exile groups.

Castro has assured Cubans in recent months that ''we are doing well,'' calling on them to be patient as the government struggles to repair the electrical network system.

While Cubans complained about the blackouts, there is little doubt Castro remains firmly in control of the last communist country in the Americas and one of only five in the world. The others are China, Vietnam, North Korea and Laos.

Cuba's rubber-stamp parliament in March 2003 confirmed Castro to a sixth 5-year term as the president of the Council of State.

''I promise that I will be with you, if you so wish, for as long as I feel that I can be useful,'' he said at the time.