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Former Cuban President Fidel Castro met with the Cuban medical brigade that carried out a wide-ranging psychosocial and clinical-genetic study in Bolivia. “What is most important is the example set for the young people who, together with you, have begun to carry out this task among its people and in other countries,” said the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, who gave the members of the contingent a copy of his book “Por todos los caminos de la Sierra: La victoria estratégica.”

The Cuban government hopes to meet around 90 per cent of the housing needs of the population by 2020 and thus fulfill the Millennium Goals established by the UN, the local press reported. For this the authorities have proposed a construction plan of 60,000 new homes a year starting 2011, especially based on the so-called self construction effort.

Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes confirmed he will make a state visit to Cuba in early September, during which he will meet with his counterpart Raúl Castro and will sign several agreements, one of which will allow TACA Airlines to have direct flights between the two nations. Funes re-established diplomatic relations with the island when he took power on June 1, 2009.

Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Affairs rejected the statements by former Cuban President Fidel Castro in his last two Reflections dedicated to reviewing the book “La mafia que se adueñó de México… y el 2012,” by former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador. In the text, the Mexican Secretariat sincerely hoped that the Cuban population “can have free elections to vote for their representatives and that human rights be fully respected in the island.”

Specialists from the University of Computer Sciences (UCI) are working on a third version of the NOVA operation system, which it expects to present in early 2011 and which functions on GNU/Linux distributions, as part of a national program to change to free software, sources from that center of higher learning announced.

Another six imprisoned dissidents will be released “soon” and accepted the proposal of traveling to Spain after leaving prison, the Archbishopric of Havana announced Friday evening in a press release signed by spokesman Orlando Márquez.

The current hurricane season could intensify due to the start of La Niña, the cooling of the waters of the Equatorial Pacific Ocean, reported the Climate Centre of the Cuban Institute of Meteorology. Although the forecasts were that this would be a more active season than 2009, up to now the island has not been affected by a hurricane.