News

While it may seem contradictory to some, Cuba’s healthcare system will benefit with over 1.2 million USD collected by the auction Friday of beautifully hand crafted wooden humidors with Cuban Premium cigars. The sale took place during the closing day of the 11th Havana Cigar Festival in the Cuban capital on Friday.

The 10th Havana Biennial takes place from March 27-April 30, announced Rubén del Valle, president of the National Council of Visual Arts. The works will concentrate on the subject of integration and resistance in the global age, reported IPS.

Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez will travel to Cuba on March 2 to attend the 11th International Meeting of Economists, Globalization and Development Problems, announced Carlos Morales, that Caribbean country’s foreign minister. Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will also participate in the event.

The United States should allow more academics and artists to travel to Cuba, eliminate the restrictions on remittances and humanitarian aid sent to the island and, in general, review its policy of hostility toward Cuba, states a report by the Brookings Institute presented in Miami.

“Most Americans know about the multiple attempts our government made to assassinate Fidel Castro, but I, for one, did not know that as a part of our plan to “destabilize” Cuba,” says Peter Coyote in a highly commented article published today in the SF Gate website. The actor is in Cuba to attend the Habano Cigar Festival. To read the entire article click on:

• Traveling to Cuba is like going back in time

Cuban President Raul Castro held a meeting Wednesday with Jack Lang, special envoy of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, during which he expressed his government’s willingness to continue the political dialogue between Cuba and the European Union (EU), reinitiated in Paris last October. Castro also confirmed his interest in boosting political, economic and cooperation relations between the two countries.

A bill passed by the US House of Representatives on Wednesday is a long ways from ending the Cuba blockade and fails to address the issue of eliminating restrictions on all US citizens to freely travel to the island. However, it would allow Cuban Americans to travel more often and facilitate food sales through a better payment scheme.

The 8th Exhibit of Young Filmmakers will begin Tuesday in the Cuban capital, organized by the Cuban Institute of Cinema Arts and Industry (ICAIC). The annual event of the island’s new generations of filmmakers will be held until next March 1 in several of the city’s movie theatres.

The population of Consolación del Sur and the community of San Diego de los Baños, in the westernmost Cuban province of Pinar del Río, were favored by the inauguration of two pumping stations and a gravity-fed water conduit system, which replaces an old aqueduct, reported IPS. The area was hard hit by two powerful hurricanes, Gustav and Ike, in a ten-day period starting August 31, 2008.

The 21st Havana Cigar Festival opened today in the Cuban capital, reported sources from the Habanos S.A. joint venture. The participants will have the opportunity until February 27 to taste new products, visit factories and tobacco plantations, and finally attend the gala supper, where the Havana Cigar of the Year Prize will be announced.