News

The governments of Cuba and the United States will resume talks on migratory issues, suspended by the Bush administration in 2003, announced a Department of State spokesperson. Cuban President Raul Castro has repeatedly said that his country is willing to hold talks with the Obama administration to improve US-Cuban relations, as long as they take place without pre-conditions and in a climate of mutual respect.

Havana Province won its second one-run game over Villa Clara 5-4 on Sunday afternoon to take a 2-0 lead in the Cuban Baseball Championship best-of-seven series. Once again Rafael Orta had what proved to be the game winning hit, this time a solo homer in the bottom of the eight inning of Villa Clara’s top reliever Yolexis Ulacia.

Mabel Leon is a Schenectady New York woman who, when it comes to Cuba, doesn’t take no for an answer. She has traveled to Cuba seven times since the early 1990s and has been interrogated by the US Dept. of Homeland Security and fined US $67,000 for doing so.

An earthquake of 3.1 degrees on the Richter scale, classified as low intensity, was felt in several areas of the southeastern province of Santiago de Cuba on Thursday, reported the local press.

Cuba’s Minister of Culture Abel Prieto and his counterparts of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas are in Caracas, Venezuela on Friday to evaluate the development of the regional integration mechanism in the sphere of culture.

Cuba’s Public Health Ministry announced on Friday that as of Monday, June 1st, flights to and from Mexico will be resumed after being temporarily suspended at the end of April to prevent the entrance of the AH1N1 virus, also known as swine flu.

The Organization of American States (OAS) created a working group Wednesday to try to conciliate the proposals by the United States, Honduras and Nicaragua on Cuba’s possible return to that regional body, announced the president of the Permanent Council, Canadian Graeme Clark.

Amnesty International recognized in a report released in London that the US blockade on Cuba has a negative effect on the general population. At the same time the organization maintains that restrictions on civil and political rights on the island remained unchanged in 2008, reported IPS.

After first announcing that the Cuban Baseball League championship series between Villa Clara and Havana Province would begin on Thursday, Cuban baseball authorities have moved the opening game date back to Saturday at 2:00 p.m.

After a long effort to gain support, complete sex change operations are now authorized in Cuba, announced Mariela Castro, director of the National Sex Education Center (CENESEX).