The first move was the government buy out of Telcom’s (Italy) minority share of the Cuban Telecomunications Co. ETECSA. The second was to unblock access on the island to the most well known Cuban blog internationally, Generation Y, put out by Yoani Sanchez.
Read MoreCuba has demonstrated that “the problem of children is not a matter of economic resources but rather of political will,” UNICEF representative Juan Ortiz said in statements to the island’s press. “Being a blockaded country and with scarce resources, it achieved that the implementation of the rights of children be a model, with indicators that are among the highest in the world.”
Read MoreState housing construction decreased 7.5 per cent in 2010 as compared to the figure planned by the government, while the private sector reported an increase of 158 per cent, according to the report “Housing: Selected Indicators. January-December 2010” of the National Office of Statistics (ONE). The island’s government, which has a housing deficit of more than half a million units, hopes to build 43,000 homes this year.
Read MoreThe 20th International Book Fair of Cuba will be inaugurated today at the San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress in the Cuban capital, the local press reported. This year the event is dedicated to the cultures of the peoples of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) and to the bicentennial of the first independence of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Read MoreThe maximum temperatures in Havana will fluctuate between 23°C (73°F) and 27°C (81°F) and the minimum temperatures between 15°C (59°F) and 18°C (64°F). The temperatures will decline until the middle of the period, and then begin to move up again.
Read MoreThe 14th International Convention and Fair Informática 2011 is taking place this week through Friday in the Cuban capital. The event is held at the Havana Convention Center and the nearby PABEXPO fairgrounds under the slogan “Converging technologies: integration and independence”, with the objective to promote the scientific advances, new technologies and new features of the sector. (10 photos)
Read MoreThe opening to the private farmer sector in 2008 made it possible to begin the recovery of pineapple production in the central province of Ciego de Avila, known in Cuba for the traditional cultivation of that fruit. The pineapple harvest dropped from more than 30,000 tons in 1991 to a bit over 200 tons in 2006.
Read MoreThe New York Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors awarded Cuban playwright Nicolás Dorr the annual HOLA Prize to the best premiered text in 2010 for the play Confesiones en el barrio chino, which was also given a prize by the New York Association of Variety Show Journalists, according to sources close to the author.
Read MoreThe Amnesty International human rights organization asked the Cuban government to finish the process of releasing political prisoners, begun in 2010, and to guarantee the integration of the dissidents into society, in statements by its spokesman Javier Zúñiga. AI also expressed its satisfaction for the release of dissident Guido Sigler last Feb. 4.
Read MoreThe U.S. government expects agent Alan Gross, under arrest in Cuba since December 2009, will be set free and will not negotiate his release with the Cuban authorities, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley affirmed.
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