News

Archbishop of Havana Jaime Ortega considered this Friday that there is a “positive” turn in the changes taken on by the government of President Raúl Castro to overcome the economic difficulties, although he admitted that some measures lead to worrying elements. “The process…is beginning and we don’t know how it is going to develop. However, I am sure there has been a change in direction in terms of stating Cuba’s economic difficulties and how to overcome them,” which is “in itself positive,” Cardinal Ortega said to a group of journalists.

Team Cuba opens its play in the Pan American Games and World Cup qualifier tonight in Ponce, Puerto Rico at 7:30 p.m. versus Venezuela. Cuban Baseball expert Peter C. Bjarkman will be reporting direct from Puerto Rico for HT readers.

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, is back in his offices late Thursday as a police uprising in the afternoon appears to have been squashed. The 47-year old Correa returned after being rescued from the hospital where he was held up after being attacked by the police.

A network of Cuban activists issued a strong condemnation of the coup de état underway Thursday in Ecuador. “We recognize the people as a source of justice, and for that reason we put ourselves alongside ecuadorians. We denounce the cowardly aggression against those in that sister country who struggle to stop the violence of the police involved n the coup,” stated the Critical Observatory Network.

The Cuban government expressed its disappointment over the performance of U.S. President Barack Obama, who has not used his prerogatives to modify the policy toward the island, especially the economic blockade, according to a communiqué of the Cuban mission to the UN.

The presence of high levels of lead in blood affects the behaviour and learning of Cuban students in primary education, according to a research carried out among children from the municipality of Centro Habana, in the Cuban capital.

Sixty-six per cent of the adolescents who answered a survey carried out in the schools of the municipality of San José de las Lajas, in the province of Havana, had consumed alcoholic beverages, a figure considered worrisome because it reveals the early beginning of “a possible addiction that unquestionably has an influence on and damages biological, psychological and social development.” The research, published by Havana’s Revista de Ciencias Médicas medical journal, also warned about the proportion of girls and female adolescents, “given that it is recognized in literature as the least tolerant and at greatest risk” for this population group