Boy at center of custody battle turns 9

CARDENAS, Cuba -- There were clowns and songs, balloons and cake -- as well as a visit from Cuban leader Fidel Castro -- as Elian Gonzalez celebrated his ninth birthday with schoolmates Friday.

In many ways, life has never been the same for the child since a 1999 attempt to take him to the United States left his mother dead and made him the focus of an international tug-of-war between relatives in Miami and his father in Cardenas.

But on Friday, he almost seemed to be just another child in the crowd of some 700 children.