The United States Congress will not discuss in its last sessions of this year a bill that would have lifted the restrictions on travel to Cuba, said Democratic Senator Bill Delahunt. Starting January, the bill could face a definitive opposition in the new House of Representatives, dominated by the Republican Party, and in the Senate where the Democrats lost part of their majority.
Read MoreCuba’s Supreme Court commuted to 30 years the death sentence imposed on Salvadoran Raul Ernesto Cruz, confessed author of attacks with bombs in 1997 that killed Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo and caused material damage to hotels and tourist installations in Havana. An official source reported that in the modification of the sentence the defendant’s contribution to clearing up the complex structure of the terrorist network financed and organized in the United States, among other factors, was taken into account.
Read MoreCuban Vice President Esteban Lazo called on the island’s population to “think, create, alert, act and leave aside passivity and tolerance,” in a speech on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the schools of the ruling Communist Party. “It is necessary to strengthen the link with the masses, eliminate improvisation to be able to convince the workers, the youth and the people of the complex social and international reality we are living,” the official said.
Read MoreThe Cuban health authorities will lower the level of medical coverage in towns with less than 5,000 inhabitants, where the polyclinics will be turned into doctor’s offices, Minister of Public Health Roberto Morales announced. The government is making adjustments in the country’s health system to guarantee its efficiency and sustainability in the face of the economic crisis.
Read MoreThe US government urged Cuba “to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. (Alan) Gross, who has been held all this time without any charges” against him, said US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley. Gross, who was arrested a year ago, is accused of espionage by the island’s authorities.
Read MoreAn earthquake of 2.9 degrees on the Richter scale occurred yesterday in Santiago de Cuba, the local press reported today. According to the National Centre of Seismological Research, the quake was felt in that city, the second most important in the country, and in two nearby towns.
Read MoreThe governments of Cuba and France resumed official cooperation, after more than seven years of rupture because of the imprisonment of dissidents on the island in 2003. Both countries will concentrate their collaboration in areas such as agriculture, health, the environment, scientific research, the teaching of French and culture.
Read MoreRepresentatives of the Jewish community in Cuba denied that U.S. agent Alan Gross had collaborated with them before his detention in December 2009, reported IPS on Thursday. The relationship with the Jewish community has been one of the arguments of the defense to justify the presence on the island of Gross, whom the government accuses of distributing illegal electronic devices to dissidents backed by Washington.
Read MoreThe 32nd edition of the New Latin American Film Festival will begin today in the Cuban capital with the projection of the Mexican film Revolución, announced the webpage of the event, in which more than 500 works will be presented.
Read MoreThe Communist Party opened debate Wednesday on the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Party and the Revolution , a process to conclude on February 28. Meetings will be held at workplaces and communities around the country, announced an editorial in the official Granma daily. “No one should be left without giving an opinion and much less prevented from expressing it,” affirms the text titled “The people are who decides.”
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