News

The Cuban government began the second stage of the National Seminar to prepare cadres and specialists on the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines proposed for the next Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), to be held in the second half of April 2011, reported IPS. The island’s authorities say they will later call for debates in grassroots organizations of the Party and the Young Communist League (UJC), as well as in the communities.

Jurists from around 20 countries will analyze the case of the Cuban Five imprisoned in the United States charged with conspiracy to commit espionage, during the 10th International Meeting of Penal Sciences, which will begin next November 23 in the Cuban capital, Miguel Angel García, coordinator of the event’s Organizing Committee, announced. The island’s authorities consider the Cuban Five as heroes of the fight against terrorism and demand that US President Barack Obama order their release.

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro will speak today to university students in a message that will be broadcast on the Mesa Redonda program of the island’s state-run television. The historic leader of the Cuban Revolution spoke last September 3 to a crowd of students on the steps of the University of Havana, whom he lectured on the need to avoid a nuclear war,

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez is back in the news after winning another award, this time the 40,000 Euros Freedom Award from the conservative Danish think tank CEPOS.

The Cuban population will not reach the 12 million inhabitants and could start decreasing in the short term, according to the 2009 National Fertility Survey carried out by the Centre for Population and Development Studies, which is published by the National Office of Statistics (ONE). The island’s demographic panorama is fundamentally characterized by progressive aging, which will impose challenges for the public health and social security services, in addition to reducing the active labor force.

Cuba will invest 100 million dollars in the transfer of analogical television to land digital television, which could be ready by around 2020, Manuel Barreras, director of the Cuban Office for the Digitalization of Radio and TV, announced.

The Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) has graduated 8,585 health professionals from 30 countries since it was created in 1999, Juan Carrizo, rector of that educational centre, announced. According to the official, students who graduated from that university are working today in Haiti in the fight against the cholera epidemic.

The British HMS Manchester warship is visiting the Cuban capital between November 15 and 19, Tim Bailey, lieutenant commander of the Royal Navy, announced in a press release. According to the source, the ship’s stopover “represents an opportunity to strengthen the excellent collaboration between the United Kingdom and Cuba, especially in the shared priorities of the struggle against drug trafficking and response in the face of disasters.”