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Consistency took Arnold Alcolea to the lead of the Vuelta a Cuba cycling competition on Tuesday after the eighth stage of the 13-stage event crisscrossing the island.

Defending Vuelta a Cuba champion Arnold Alcolea has quietly moved into second place in this year’s 13-stage event behind Canada’s Ryan Roth who won stage seven on Monday.

The Cuban authorities have imposed more than 20,000 fines on those who have not complied with the hygienic-health regulations in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, as part of the drive to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits diseases such as dengue.

The application of the Cuban “Yo sí puedo” (Yes I can) literacy method made it possible to declare four Argentine municipalities free of illiteracy, announced Claudia Camba, president of the foundation “A better world is possible.” The illiteracy rate in those areas of the far province of Jujuy decreased from 8.89 to 1.32 per cent.

The Cuban health authorities urged the families of minors to go to healthcare centers as soon as symptoms of diarrheic diseases appear, in face of the increased occurrence of these cases reported in the island.

The Cuban National Assembly of People’s Power (parliament) is the legislative body with the highest representation of women in Latin America, with 43.2 per cent of its members, according to a study by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The island ranks fourth in the world, after Rwanda, Sweden and South Africa.

Spain is willing to receive five of the prisoners who still remain locked up at the Guantanamo Naval Base prison camp, located on Cuban territory, affirmed Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos during a press conference in Madrid. Some 200 persons continue under arrest and without legal rights on the US base located on occupied Cuban territory.

The president of the government of the Canary Islands, Paulino Rivero Baute, began today an official visit to Cuba, during which he will meet with state representatives and will attend the closing of a week for the training of judges, part of an agreement of that Spanish region with the Caribbean country’s Supreme Court. This morning Rivero met with the island’s parliament speaker, Ricardo Alarcón.

Vicente Sanabria of Matanzas took over the lead in the 13-stage la Vuelta a Cuba cycling road competition on Sunday. Meanwhile, the sixth stage was won by the Dutch duo of Peter Woestenberg and Tim Nederlof of the Global Cycling team with Pedro Sibila (Universidad de Deporte, Cuba) finishing third.