News

The Cuban government has decided to release one sick political prisoner and will move six others to jails closer to home on Saturday, reported IPS quoting Orlando Marquez, spokesperson from the Havana Archdiocese.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez reiterated to his Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos in a meeting in Paris that the Common Position “is the principal obstacle for the full normalization of relations” between the European Union and the island, reported a Foreign Ministry press release. The 27 nation EU will approve next week the conclusions of their annual review of ties with Cuba.

The National Electoral Commission affirmed in a report handed over to the Council of State that it was not satisfied with the presence of women, young people and black and mestizo persons among the elected in the recent partial elections because they are below their weight within the Cuban population.

In a letter to the US Congress seventy-four of Cuba’s dissidents have asked that the legislators lift the travel ban on US citizens visiting the island, in place for most of the last half century.

Eastern Cuba was hit by two low intensity earthquakes on Wednesday, informed the National Center for Seismology Research. The tremors registered at 3.7 and 4.8 on the Richter scale and were felt in the provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba and Granma. No injuries or material damage was reported.

The first Iberian-American Gender, Education, Health and Human Development Congress began Wednesday in Cuba with a lecture titled “Sex education as a state policy” given by Mariela Castro, director of the National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX), reported IPS. Outstanding specialists will attend the event, such as Marcela Lagarde, from Mexico, and Félix López and Ana Feixas, from Spain.

The UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, said he was disappointed on Wednesday that no agreement has been reached with Cuban authorities for a visit to the island.

The Committee for Latin America, a working group of the Council of the European Union (EU), is preparing this week the conclusions on the Cuba policy, which the foreign ministers of the 27 member countries should approve next June 14 in Luxemburg, the Brussels media reported. Spain’s intention during the presidency of the EU of changing the Common Position, in force since 1996, has come up against the opposition of the governments of Germany, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

Georgia Govenor Sonny Perdue just completed a visit to Cuba to promote better trade relations between the two countries. He said he would lobby back home at the legislature to make increased business a future reality.