Cuba to stage military parade to celebrate forces' birthday
Cuba is set to marshal its military might on Saturday morning to mark the 50th anniversary of the birth of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Tanks, rocket launchers and MIG jet fighters will roll out on Havana's Revolution Square before a crowd of 300,000.

"Those weapons will never bow before the Empire," a large banner hung in the square said on Friday, referring to the country's position to its neighboring superpower -- the United States.

The military parade, the capital's first in a decade, is part of the celebrations to mark Cuban leader Fidel Castro's 80th birthday, and is also viewed as a show of force.

It remains uncertain whether Castro will show up at the parade, as he has failed to appear in public since the celebrations began.

Meanwhile, a three-day forum to celebrate Castro's 80th birthday ended on Friday with participants continuing to discuss his influence on various aspects of the country.

The forum, named "Memory and Future: Cuba and Fidel," was staged by the Guayasamin Foundation to honor the Cuban leader.

The meeting attracted 1,500 delegates from 80 nations, including former Ecuadorian President Rodrigo Borja, Vice President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Yerodia Abdoulaye Ndombasi and Deputy Secretary of Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front Tomas Borge.

The forum was set to publish an article describing the function of the revolution and the status of Castro, and launch a book of poems illustrated with paintings by Ecuadorian painter Guayasamin.

Castro turned 80 on Aug. 13, but asked Cubans not to celebrate on that day as he was recovering from a July 31 operation to halt gastric bleeding.