In photographs submitted to the agency Castro, the country’s former president, is shown greeting Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador, and Cristina Fernandez, the Argentinian president. In both cases, AP said, a “thin wire snaking into Fidel Castro’s ear” had been digitally removed, apparently by the government-run Estudios Revolucion, which distributes photos of Cuba’s top leadership. Some of the images were distributed by the AP before it detected the manipulation.The photos had been originally taken by Fidel’s son, Alex Castro, who immediately provided the original unaltered image files when requested and said he was unaware they had been manipulated prior to their distribution, the AP said.Cases of digital photo manipulation have embarrassed authoritarian governments in recent years. Chinese officials last October were censured for adding a shrunken, doll-like image of a pensioner into a photo showing them smiling dotingly down on her. In a similar effort Chinese officials have been shown hovering over a road they were supposed to have inspected.North Korea edited out high-ranked Jang Song-thaek from official photographs, videos and archives after the uncle of leader Kim Jong-un was executed in late 2013 on charges of “dissolute and depraved behaviour”.In Egypt then-president Hosni Mubarak was digitally moved to the front of a photograph that included Barack Obama and other leaders at Middle East peace talks.It is relatively rare for up-to-date photographs of Fidel Castro to be published – he handed over to his brother, Raúl, in 2006 due to ill health. The latest pictures were taken when he was visited by leaders during a Latin America and Caribbean summit in Havana. The AP emphasised it was not the only service to retransmit them.“We have concluded that a number of official photographs of Fidel Castro were manipulated. Removing elements from a photograph is entirely unacceptable and is in clear violation of AP’s standards,” said AP vic- president and director of photography Santiago Lyon.The AP said it only used handout photographs when there was no other option and they were subjected to screening. During that process photo editors noted an anomaly in a picture that showed Castro meeting with Correa in Havana on 29 January and acquired the original from Alex Castro. “The original clearly showed a thin wire snaking into Fidel Castro’s ear that was missing from the altered photo released through Estudios Revolucion,” the AP said. The Correa photos were not transmitted but a series featuring Fernandez went out to the agency’s clients worldwide.Alex Castro has taken most of the pictures of his 87-year-old father that have been released since a near-fatal illness forced him from office in 2006 and Raúl became acting president, then took over full-time in 2008(theguardian.com)ANN.Az