Cuba and China will build a new luxury hotel in the tourist area of the Hemingway Marina, in the island’s capital, reported IPS. The new installation, which will have 650 rooms, will form part of the joint ventures in areas such as the machine and light industry, communications, agricultural production and tourism.
Read MoreThe Cuban Vegas Robaina Famoso cigar won the Best of the Best of 2009 Prize, awarded by Moscow’s Cigar Clan organization, which also sponsored an exhibition of 50 works by 15 of the island’s visual artists, reported IPS. The competition, in which several countries participated, also recognized brands from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
Read MoreThe Ridley Thomas ship docked in the port of Santiago de Cuba, in the island’s eastern region, where it will continue the exploration of the underwater seabed for the optic fibre cable that will come from Venezuela in early 2011 and will greatly increase the Caribbean country’s communication possibilities, announced Anthony Pyne, manager of China’s Geological Projects Company.
Read MoreThis is not the first time the topic has been discussed in that nation’s capital. Last year the Brookings Institution sponsored a similar event in which panelists called on the Obama administration and Congress to recognize the potential danger posed to Florida’s Atlantic shores by Cuba’s eventual deep water drilling in the Gulf and to begin a dialogue with the island’s government that would lead to a comprehensive prevention and mitigation plan.
Read MoreA new joint venture oil company has been established involving state run firms in Venezuela (Pdvsa), Cuba (Cupet) and Angola (Sanangol), reported Pdvsa in a press release. The company will pump some 20,000 barrels a day in eastern Venezuela.
Read MoreVenezuelan President Hugo Chávez sent a commission of experts to Cuba to advise the island on how to address the oil slick from the Gulf of Mexico, which will possibly affect its coasts in a few weeks, announced the president. The delegation, headed by the vice president of the state-run PDVSA oil company, Eulogio Del Pino, will help to organize simulations to preview the consequences of the oil spill.
Read MoreUS and Cuban specialists are exchanging information in Havana on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with the aim of confronting this disaster’s possible consequences on the environment, informed Virginia Staab, spokesperson for the US State Department. She said that her government wants to maintain “a clear line of communication” on the matter with Havana.
Read MoreAgricultural production reported strong decreases in the first quarter of this year as compared to 2009 in key food products in Cuba, according to a report by the National Office of Statistics (ONE). While the collection of tubers in general increased 4.5 per cent and rice, essential in the island’s diet, the production of beans and vegetables fell by 40.5 and 35.1 per cent, respectively. Moreover, citrus fruit decreased 21.6 per cent.
Read MoreA lawsuit against the U.S. companies that carry out trips to Cuba could interrupt Miami-Havana flights if it is accepted by a state of Florida court, reported IPS citing Mexico’s La Jornada daily. The lawsuit presented by Ana Margarita Martínez would freeze the funds that those entities use to pay their counterpart in Cuba, Havanatur, and as a result the air link would be suspended.
Read MoreCuban specialists expressed their will to turn the country into an exporter of flowers, a product that used to be exported to the United States before 1959, it was reported to the press during the FLORIMAT 2010 First National Workshop, being held in the western city of Matanzas. The participants favored opening up to the introduction of clones and using the areas with microclimates in the island.
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