September could equal the record of most tropical cyclones with a name, which up to now is eight, a figure reached during the same month in 2002 and August 2004, the local press reported. The most dangerous period for Cuba is October, although in the ninth month of the year it has been hit by devastating hurricanes like Ike in 2008.
Read MoreThousands of meetings are being held this week in Cuba in workplaces and barrios with the aim of explaining the laying off of half a million persons from the state sector, announced Salvador Valdés, general secretary of the Central Organization of Cuban Trade Unions (CTC), the only authorized union organization in the island. Valdes said: “The process will be wide ranging, with the most absolute freedom of opinions, with sincerity in the presentations and with respect for the dissenting opinions that may exist.”
Read MoreCuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez defended “the building of a new international economic and political order, based on the principles of solidarity, social justice, equity and respect for the rights of peoples and each human being,” when speaking during the UN General Assembly’s High-level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals.
Read MoreFifty-four per cent of the land handed over in usufruct in Cuba since September 2008 is still unproductive, Pedro Olivera, director of the National Land Control Centre, said. Specialists in agricultural matters point out that the process has confronted bureaucratic obstacles, despite the government’s interest in reducing food imports, which amount to two billion dollars a year.
Read MoreFormer Cuban President Fidel Castro met with the members of the Japanese Peace Boat that arrived today in the Cuban capital’s port, the local press reported. This ship represents the nongovernmental organization founded in Tokyo in 1983, whose mission is to carry a message of peace throughout the world.
Read MoreWhile officials meeting in Montreal, Canada failed to finalize a key protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Tuesday, biodiversity is scheduled to be at the top of Wednesday’s agenda of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
Read MoreI still don’t know who the “good guys” are – the Catholics, Protestants or the atheists, or the communists or social-democrats. I still don’t know if there is a right side. I only feel more and more fearful of those who are able to come to power – the fanatics and even the leaders.
Read MoreCuban women have to work twice as hard as men to get ahead in their careers. But things are even tougher for black women in Cuba, although discrimination by reason of gender or skin color is prohibited by law and by the constitution itself.
Read MoreBrazil is willing to help Cuba in the development of small and medium-sized businesses, capable of assuming the half million persons who will be jobless in the state sector in the coming months, Celso Amorim, that South American country’s foreign minister, affirmed. Last Saturday he met with President Raúl Castro.
Read MoreThe intake of alcoholic beverages has a direct relationship to violence and especially to homicides, according to a research published in the magazine of the Havana Psychiatric Hospital. The study, that covered 71 cases processed by the Forensic Psychiatry service of that health institution, revealed that more than half of the victimizers had drank alcohol before committing their crimes.
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