News

The 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Odlanier Solis of Cuba puts his perfect record in professional boxing on the line Saturday in Cologne, Germany in a bout against World Heavyweight Champion Vitali Kliotschko, 39, of the Ukraine.

Cuba should “be prepared for that (US government) project that is so sinister and alien to an authentic cultural exchange” against Cuba, Minister of Culture Abel Prieto affirmed in a ceremony to pay tribute to a State Security agent who revealed alleged US plans to promote anti-government actions among intellectuals and artists.

Political prisoner Ricardo Librado Linares will be released in the next few days, with which only two of the 75 dissidents sentenced in 2003 will remain in prison, the Havana Archbishopric announced. Linares refused to accept the offer of leaving the country and traveling to Spain, according to the agreement of the Cuban authorities with the Catholic Church and the government of Spain.

The Council of Ministers of the European Union (EU) will not discuss the subject of relations with Cuba in its meeting next Monday and will postpone this analysis for the upcoming months, the press in Brussels reported.

A high pressure center located in the southern United States will be moving toward the east around the middle of the period to create nice weather conditions with light breezes and make the likelihood of rain low. The maximum temperatures will fluctuate between 28°C (82°F) and 29°C (84°F), and the minimum temperatures will be around 18°C (64°F).

New York Times reporter Ann Louise Bardach, considered a key witness of the prosecution in the trial against self-confessed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, will testify today in El Paso, Texas, the Miami-based El Nuevo Herald reported. Bardach interviewed Posada in 1998 about his responsibility in the attacks against Cuban tourist installations in 1997.

The Partagás cigar brand is celebrating its 166th birthday with a meeting of clients from Brazil, Italy and Grand Cayman, to be held next April, Abel Expósito, director of the marketing house, announced. The event will include visits to tobacco plantations in the western province of Pinar del Río, famous worldwide for the quality of its tobacco.

The mayor of Managua, Daysi Torres, thanked Cuba for its medical cooperation in the area of ophthalmology, which enabled more than 75,000 surgical operations since the start of Operation Miracle in 2007, in a ceremony held in that city. That initiative, coordinated by Cuba and Venezuela, provides free ophthalmological care to low-income persons.

Cuban dissident Oscar Elías Biscet demanded the resignation of President Raúl Castro with the aim of establishing a transition government, in his first press conference after being released last Friday. Biscet, who rejected travelling to Spain, also asked for the release of another three dissidents of the Group of 75 sentenced in 2003.