HAVANA Photographs of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, 88, appeared in official media on Monday for the first time since August, showing him slightly hunched over while seated, but appearing animated as he spoke with a student leader. 
 
 Speculation over Castro's health has intensified since the historic Dec. 17 announcement by his younger brother, and current president, Raul Castro, and U.S. President Barack Obama, that the two longtime adversaries would restore diplomatic ties. 
 
 Castro, who periodically writes a column, went silent after the announcement until finally commenting a week ago, when he offered lukewarm support for the pact his brother reached with Obama. 
 
 The pictures of Castro with student leader Randy Perdomo were taken on Jan. 23, according to Perdomo's account, which appeared with the photos on the website of the Communist Party newspaper Granma on Monday night. 
 
 Granma published 21 pictures of the two men talking, with Castro in various poses of engaged conversation, viewing a video and flipping through a newspaper. 
 
 A Brazilian theologian who met Castro last week said the former leader was in good health, appearing skinny but lucid. 
 
 Castro stepped down from power due to poor health, handing over to his brother provisionally in 2006 and definitively in 2008. Though he receives visitors, he has not appeared in public for more than a year. 
 
 (Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) ||||| Castro reading a newspaper with Perdomo. (Photo: Estudios Revolucion via epa) 
 
 Amid rumors Fidel Castro is in declining health or may have already died, Cuba's Communist Party newspaper Granma published the first photos in months of the aging former Cuban leader. 
 
 The article, titled "Fidel is one of a kind" and published late Monday, includes a gallery of more than 20 pictures of the 88-year-old Castro speaking with Randy Perdomo García, the head of the Federation of University Students at the University of Havana. 
 
 In several of the photographs, the former guerrilla leader is seen holding a newspaper reporting on the release of three Cuban spies from the United States, perhaps in an effort to verify the photographs were taken recently. The three intelligence agents were freed after the Dec. 17, 2014 declaration that the two countries would re-establish diplomatic relations. 
 
 Perdomo says he met with Castro for more than three hours and that the "Commandante" was "full of life" during their discussion of issues ranging from sports and Castro's daily exercises, to astronomy and world affairs. 
 
 "(Castro) continues a conversation about new ways of fighting some diseases, including diabetes, with the production of natural foods; about Cuba's relations with Africa, from its contribution to those countries' independence to the end of apartheid and the current contribution of Cuban doctors to the fight against Ebola," Perdomo wrote. 
 
 The release of the pictures follows what has become a now-common routine where the Cuban government distributes proof of Castro's well-being to quash rumors of his death. 
 
 "You wonder if its Photoshopped to make him look better, but he clearly seems to be alive and engaged," said Jorge Duany, director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University in Miami. 
 
 But Duany sees another motive. He says its no accident that Fidel Castro is seen with the head of the university's student union. 
 
 "It's an attempt to revive the heroic student days of Fidel Castro, reminding everyone in Cuba and elsewhere of the revolutionary struggle and Fidel's lifelong commitment to changing the world," Duany said. "They're trying to make that connection between his youth and the now aging, retired leader." 
 
 At least one critic of the Cuban government was skeptical of the claim Castro is still lucid and theorized he suffers from some form of dementia. 
 
 "It's OK to say that he's gone, that he's not the same person that he once was," Ninoska Pérez, director of the Cuban Liberty Council told CNN. "But they want to keep this image alive of someone who is not only still there but is in control of everything." 
 
 "If Fidel Castro was in any condition to be shown in a camera or to address the nation, they would have done so a long time ago," Pérez added. 
 
 The photos were published just before midnight Monday. The last images of Castro released prior to these came out in August following a meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. 
 
 An article published on Granma's website last month featured comments, but no photos, from the former revolutionary leader on the improving relations between Cuba and the United States. 
 
 "I don't trust the policy of the United States, nor have I exchanged a word with them, but this does not mean I reject a pacific solution to the conflicts," the Jan. 26 article quoted Castro as saying in a letter directed to the Federation of University Students. "We will always defend cooperation and friendship with all the people of the world, including with our political adversaries." 
 
 Contributing: Alan Gomez, USA TODAY; The Associated Press 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1CUDRqt ||||| Havana (AFP) - Cuban state media released the first photographs of former president Fidel Castro in nearly six months in a bid to quiet rumors that his health is failing. 
 
 The images showed the 88-year-old Castro at his home along with his wife Dalia during a meeting with the leader of a students' union, and were published in the state-run newspaper Granma and other official media. 
 
 Castro had remained quiet publicly after the United States and Cuba announced in December that they were going to restore diplomatic relations after a half century of enmity stemming from the Cold War. 
 
 That silence prompted chatter on social media and in foreign media that Castro was sick or even had died. 
 
 The article accompanying the new photos said the meeting took place January 23. The headline says, "Fidel is extraordinary." The photos show Castro wearing a blue sweat-suit with a blue-checked collared shirt. 
 
 The images come after weeks of feverish speculation concerning the Cuban revolutionary leader's medical condition after he disappeared from the public eye. 
 
 The last time he was seen in public was January 8, 2014, when he attended an art gallery opening near his home. 
 
 Swirling rumours of Castro's demise have cropped up often since he stepped down from office during a health crisis in 2006. 
 
 Raul Castro, the longtime armed forces chief, took his brother's place at Cuba's helm. 
 
 The Granma article said that the meeting between Castro and the student leader came four days before Castro finally broke his silence on the diplomatic breakthrough with the US and said that, although he was wary of his old enemy Washington, he did not oppose it and viewed the historic change as a "positive step." 
 
 Perdomo said his talks with Castro were as if he were talking to an old friend. 
 
 He said he got a call the night before from Castro and was moved when he finally heard a voice he had often heard from afar. 
 
 "How are you, Randy,?" said Castro, according to Perdomo. 
 
 He said they talked about the articles that Castro has published in Granma, and about astronomy and the importance of science in human advancement. 
 
 Last week the communist leader met with a Brazilian theologian, Frei Betto, who advocates liberation theology -- the idea that it is the Catholic Church's responsibility to help the poor. 
 
 "The commander is in good health and in good spirits," Betto said the next day. But no photos of the meeting were published. 
 
 Castro took notes on what Betto said, according to the Brazilian. 
 
 Betto said he found the former Cuban leader "in good health, thin but lucid." 
 
 In mid-January Castro sent a letter to Argentina football legend Diego Maradona -- a friend of his -- and this also eased fears that he was on his last legs. ||||| HAVANA (AP) — Cuba has published the first photos of Fidel Castro in more than five months, showing the 88-year-old former leader engaged in what appears to be a lively conversation with a university student. 
 
 A screenshot of Cuba's website Cubadebate shows ten photos of Fidel Castro on their opening page in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday Feb. 3, 2015. Cuba has published the first photos of Fidel Castro in five months,... (Associated Press) 
 
 A screenshot of Cuba's website Cubadebate shows a photo of Fidel Castro with the head of the main Cuban student union Randy Perdomo Garcia in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday Feb. 3, 2015. Cuba has published the... (Associated Press) 
 
 Nearly two dozen images were published virtually simultaneously on the websites of Cuba's main state media outlets around midnight Monday. In them, Castro is seated and discussing current events with the head of the main Cuban student union. A first-person account by student leader Randy Perdomo Garcia says the meeting took place on Jan. 23. 
 
 The photos are the first images of the revolutionary leader since a set of photos came out in August showing him talking with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. 
 
 Perdomo says in a lengthy article accompanying the photos that he and Castro met for more than three hours in the former leader's house after an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of Castro starting his studies at the University of Havana. 
 
 The student leader says Castro said that he is keeping abreast of the news and performing daily exercises, and he engaged Perdomo in a wide-ranging discussion of topics including international politics, agriculture, astronomy, and even Namibia's donation of animals to Cuba's National Zoo. 
 
 Perdomo says the two men discussed the release of three Cuban intelligence agents as part of the Dec. 17 declaration by Cuba and the United States that they would move to re-establish full diplomatic relations. The photos show Castro examining a newspaper report on their release. 
 
 "I'm about to go but he continues a conversation about new ways of fighting some diseases, including diabetes, with the production of natural foods; about Cuba's relations with Africa, from its contribution to those countries' independence to the end of apartheid and the current contribution of Cuban doctors to the fight against Ebola," Perdomo wrote. 
 
 Castro did not issue a public statement for nearly a month after the announcement that Cuba and the U.S. were moving to re-establish full diplomatic relations. Castro's public appearances and statements have become increasingly infrequent since he stepped down from duties as president after a serious illness in 2006 and handed over leadership to his younger brother Raul. His unusually lengthy silence after the Dec. 17 announcement sparked intense speculation about his health. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Michael Weissenstein at www.twitter.com/mweissenstein.
– 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.