Castro in trainers heads million people march

Fidel Castro has led more than a million people on a march marking the start of the Cuban revolution nearly a half-century ago.

The dictator, whose fainting spell during a speech last month stunned the nation, walked briskly in a less typical pair of white trainers.

Dressed in his olive green uniform, the Cuban president vigorously waved a small Cuban flag as he started the march down Havana's coastal Malecon highway. Castro will be 75 next month.

Also taking part was Hassan Khomeini, whose grandfather, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, led Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Down with the genocidal blockade!" the marchers chanted, referring to the 40-year US trade embargo against the Caribbean island.

"Down with the murderous law!" they shouted, in a protest at US immigration policies that Havana says encourage Cubans to risk their lives on dangerous sea journeys in the hope of gaining American citizenship.

The Communist Party newspaper Granma declared that about 1.2 million residents of the capital and surrounding Havana province were expected to participate in the "gigantic combatant march" past the US Interests Section, the American mission in Cuba.