Hugo Chavez’s United Socialist Party retained a majority of seats in the Venezuelan parliament on Sunday but lost the 2/3 majority that allowed the president to implement policies virtually by decree.
Read MoreCuba’s thrashing of visiting Nicaragua appears to indicate the island’s baseball team is ready for the upcoming Pan American Games and World Cup qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico on October 1-13.
Read MoreThe opening to the private sector in Cuba, with the authorization of greater possibilities for self-employment, is approaching the island to the socialist model Venezuela is building, Hugo Chávez, president of the South American country, affirmed. Chávez rejected that he was copying what the opposition calls “Cuban communism.”
Read MoreThe European Union (EU) should respond to Cuba’s gestures regarding the release of political prisoners and change its policy toward the island, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos affirmed. “I believe we will have the occasion, I’m convinced, to change what was a common position that has become obsolete for a new bilateral relation between Cuba and the European Union,” the official said when referring to the review of the issue next October.
Read MoreAn earthquake of 3.0 degrees on the Richter scale was registered yesterday at noon in the mountainous area of the eastern province of Granma, over 700 kilometers east of the Cuban capital, the Network of National Seismological Service Stations reported.
Read MoreTwelve persons died and 35 were injured in a traffic accident in the central province of Villa Clara, when a truck’s trailer hit a passenger bus, the local press reported. Traffic accidents are one of the first causes of death in Cuba.
Read MoreTropical Storm Matthew touched land in the extreme northeast of Nicaragua on Friday afternoon with maximum sustained winds of 75 kmh (45 mph), reported Cuba’s Meteorological Institute (INSMET) which has been tracking the tempest. The storm poses no threat to Cuba.
Read MoreThe Cuban government will authorize self-employment in 178 activities and will allow the hiring of labour force in 83 of these activities, First Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Security Admi Valhuerdi Cepero announced. According to the official, the persons who accede to this labour alternative will have to pay taxes on personal income, sales, and public services and for the use of labour force, in addition to contributing to social security.
Read MoreThe New York Lincoln Center jazz band, headed by U.S. trumpet player Wynton Marsalis, will give four concerts between October 5 and 9 in Cuba, where it will perform with pianist Chucho Valdés, the local press reported. This visit is one more among the growing cultural exchange between both countries, promoted by President Barack Obama.
Read MoreHeberprot-P, created by specialists from the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Centre (CIGB) and the National Institute of Angiology and Vascular Surgery, has benefited more than 16,000 diabetic patients in Cuba, Miriela Gil Mena, coordinator of the Programme for the National Extension of that medicine which reduces the chances of an amputation, said. There are around 285 million diabetic persons in the world.
Read More