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		</div><p>Fidel Castro has thanked Cubans for their good wishes on his 90th birthday on Saturday and criticised US president Barack Obama in a lengthy letter published in state media.</p>
<p>Castro touched on his father&#8217;s death shortly before his own victory in overthrowing US-backed strongman Fulgencio Batista in 1959.</p>
<p>He criticised Mr Obama, who appeared to anger the revolutionary leader with a March trip to Cuba in which he called for Cubans to look toward the future.</p>
<p>Castro wrote a sternly worded letter a week after the trip admonishing Mr Obama to read up on Cuban history, declaring that &#8220;we don&#8217;t need the empire to give us anything.&#8221;</p>
<p>He attacked Mr Obama in Saturday&#8217;s letter for not apologising to the Japanese people during a May trip to Hiroshima, describing the US president&#8217;s speech there as &#8220;lacking stature.&#8221;</p>
<p>He also wrote: &#8220;I want to express my deepest gratitude for the shows of respect, greetings and praise that I&#8217;ve received in recent days, which give me strength to reciprocate with ideas that I will send to party militants and relevant organisations.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Modern medical techniques have allowed me to scrutinise the universe,&#8221; wrote Castro, who stepped down as Cuba&#8217;s president 10 years ago after suffering a severe gastrointestinal illness.</p>
<p>Castro accompanied his thanks with reminiscences about his childhood and youth in eastern Cuba, describing the geology and plant life of the region where he grew up.</p>
<p>The Cuban government has taken a relatively low-key approach to Castro&#8217;s birthday, in comparison with the large-scale gatherings that had been planned for his 80th.</p>
<p>Government ministries have held small musical performances and photo exhibitions that pay tribute to the former head of state.</p>
<p>State media showed images of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro arriving in Havana and a tribute was planned at a Havana theatre for Sunday evening. The government did not say which Cuban officials would attend.</p>
<p>Castro last appeared in public in April, closing the twice-a-decade congress of the Cuban Communist Party with a call for Cuba to stick to its socialist ideals amid ongoing normalisation with the US.</p>
<p>The need for closer economic ties with the US has grown more urgent as Venezuela, Castro&#8217;s greatest ally, tumbles into economic free-fall, cutting the flow of subsidised oil that Cuba has depended on from the South American country for more than a decade.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Cubans are emigrating to the United States, hollowing out the ranks of highly educated professionals.</p>
<p>The brightest spot in Cuba&#8217;s flagging economy has been a post-detente surge in tourism that is expected to boom when commercial flights to and from the United States, Cuba&#8217;s former long-time enemy, resume on August 31.</p>
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