News

Fidel: China, Russia Can Avoid Iran War

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro affirmed in statements to a group of journalists of the Round Table program of the island’s state-run television that Russia and China can intercede with the U.S. government to avoid a war against Iran, which in his opinion is imminent. In his most recent Reflections, Castro insisted on the responsibility of U.S. President Barack Obama in the start of a possible nuclear war.

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TS Danielle No Threat to Cuba

Tropical Storm Danielle poses no threat to Cuba according to projections from the US National Hurricane Center (NHC). Cuba was hit by three major hurricanes in 2008 that dealt a severe blow to the nation’s economy, especially the housing construction program.

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Kentucky Paper Says Open Cuba Travel

The newspaper Courier Journal from Louisville, Kentucky, defended the elimination of the travel to Cuba restrictions instead of easing them, as White House representatives have announced as a possibility. In an editorial the daily also said that the embargo has been a failed effort to oust Fidel Castro’s government. Greater contact with the U.S. people could encourage the Cuban population’s wish to make economic and political changes, it said.

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Church Rejects Insults Over Mediation

The Cuban Catholic Church rejected the insults contained in an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI, which questions its role in the release of the island’s political prisoners after the negotiation with the Cuban government, according to a press note released in this capital. The Church’s action, notes the text, “has not relied, nor will it ever rely, on political tendencies, or on those of the government or those opposed to them, but rather on its pastoral mission.”

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Fidel Castro Feels Optimistic

The former Cuban president affirmed that he feels “optimistic on rational and solid bases,” despite the natural disasters caused by human action, in his latest Reflection, published by the island’s state-run press. Castro considered that “the solution is at the reach of many persons if we are able to get the truth to enough persons among the thousands of millions who inhabit the planet.”

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Travel Agency Readies for Cuba Boom

Claiming to be the “largest travel service provider to Cuba,” Marazul Charters is gearing up for a possible boom in travel to the Caribbean island if rumors that President Obama will allow greater access to some US citizens prove true.

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Film on Transsexual Premiered in Cuba

Cuban filmmaker Marylin Solaya premiered in the Cuban capital’s Charles Chaplin theatre the documentary En el cuerpo equivocado (In the Wrong Body), which tells the story of Mavi Susel, the first transsexual who underwent a sex change operation in the island in 1988, reported IPS. In the coming days HT will present a review of the documentary.

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Youth a Majority in Lands Handed Over

More than 50 per cent of the persons who have received lands in usufruct, according to Law 259 of 2008, are young, Pedro Olivera, director of the National Land Control Center, said. According to the source, out of the 1,007,112 hectares handed over until now, only 46 per cent are producing due to a “lack of resources and work means and the drought that has hit the country.”

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New Independent Magazine Circulates

A group of Cuban bloggers and intellectuals, headed by dissident photographer and writer Orlando Luis Pardo, released a new cultural magazine called Voces, which has begun circulating in pdf format on the web and through email.

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