News

Cuba lost its undefeated status on Saturday in a surprise loss to the Dominican Republic 9-6 at the World Cup/Pan American Games baseball qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico.

Cuba’s men’s volleyball team has returned to the top of the pack in the World Championships taking place in Rome. After getting by Serbia three sets to two on Saturday (22-25, 25-17, 31-29, 22-25, 16-14) the Cubans now face Brazil on Sunday for the title.

Cuba began its quarterfinal play with an easy 7-1 win over Panama in the World Cup/Pan American qualifying tournament taking place in Puerto Rico on Friday evening. Undefeated thus far in the event, the Cubans face the Dominican Republic on Saturday afternoon.

Cuban First Vice President José Ramón Machado insisted during a tour of healthcare installations in the central province of Villa Clara on the need to make the Cuban health system sustainable through the rationalization of the use of human and material resources, to maintain the current state of the services for the population. The government has begun a program of adjustments in public health, one of the pillars of the socialist system, in response to the economic crisis.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, which causes AIDS) has had a greater effect on persons aged between 20 and 24 living in the metropolitan areas of the central and western regions since its appearance in Cuba in 1986, according to a research published by the Revista Cubana de Higiene y Epidemiología medical journal. The study says that the rest of the island’s regions could behave in the same manner due to “the risk sexual behaviours and the little habit of practicing safe sex existing among the Cuban population, influenced by beliefs and taboos.”

The Cuban and Venezuelan governments increased cooperation in the field of higher education through an agreement that incorporates the areas of postgraduate studies, trainees and advisors; research, development and innovation projects; and the multinational ALBA-Education entity.

Self-medication is a common practice for the majority of persons in Cuba for ailments such as headaches, colds and fever, according to a study by the Revista Cubana de Medicina General Integral medical journal. The survey, which included inhabitants from the island’s capital and provincial capital cities, detected that hypertension and non-steroid anti-inflammatory medicines and psychoactive drugs are the most used in the island.

While the Senator is “hopeful that the Administration will take additional steps regarding our policy”, he clarified that with the US involved in two wars and its economy in trouble “it was rather unrealistic” to assume that Cuba would be a priority for the Administration.

The Foro Todos Cubanos (All Cubans Forum) opposition group began the collection of signatures to present a project to the National Assembly of People’s Power (parliament) that would repeal the restrictions in force regarding trips abroad, dissident Oswaldo Payá announced. In 2007 the Heredia Project was presented before the legislative body and until now has not had a response