News

Syrian President Bachar Al-Assad begins today an official visit to Cuba on Monday, during which he will meet with the highest ranking authorities, reported IPS. This is the first visit ever to Cuba by a Syrian president. The two nations established diplomatic relations back in 1965.

Often the same Cubans who risked their lives, and pay traffickers up to $10,000 per head to cross the Caribbean, were denied visas at the US Interests Section in Havana to go the United States legally.

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro sent out a warning on Sunday about a possible US-Israeli conflict with Iran that would bring unfathomable consequences. Reports last week of US and Israeli warship movements brought on the statement by Castro.

The weather system moving south of Cuba has been dubbed Tropical Storm Alex and is expected to touch ground in northern Belize or the Mexican Yucatan sometime on Sunday. The storm, located north of Honduras on Saturday —225 kilometers east of Belize and 260 kilometers southeast of Chetumal, Mexico is NOT considered a threat to Cuba, reported the Cuban Weather Institute (INSMET).

On Wednesday, June 30, at 2 pm the full House Committee on Agriculture will hold a business meeting to consider H.R. 4645, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act, which would facilitate agricultural sales to Cuba and restore the right of all US-Americans to travel to the island.

Although it hasn’t, and may not, reach tropical storm or hurricane status, the Cuban Weather Institute is tracking a storm moving south of the island that has so far brought some precipitation to the western Caribbean.

Cuba’s Civil Defense authorities announced the beginning today of two days of drills under the second stage of “Meteoro 2010”. Top level civil defense leaders will take part from the municipal to national level in planning to deal with large intensity earthquakes and tsunamis.

Vice President Esteban Lazo is heading the Cuban delegation to the Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), whose second high-level segment will begin today in the Ecuadoran city of Otavalo, reported IPS. The meeting will focus on indigenous and Afro-descendant populations in the region.

Cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking between Cuba and the United States made it possible to dismantle 19 operations in the last decade, said Yoandrys González, head of operational cooperation of the Technical Police of the Cuban Ministry of Interior. Both nations punctually collaborate in each case through communications between the coast guard services and a liaison at the US Interests Section on the island.