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Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told the press on Wednesday that the offer made by President Raul Castro in Brazil still stands to exchange political prisoners, estimated at more than 200 by “dissident” sources, for the Cuban Five, imprisoned in the United States for over a decade after an irregularity-plagued Miami trial, reported IPS.

The Cuban government will soon invite UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak to visit the island in 2009, announced Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque in Havana on Wednesday. In 2007 the Caribbean country received UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Jean Ziegler, reported IPS.

Politics aside, Galveston, Texas and Cuba were both hit hard by Hurricane Ike last September. As the storm approached over two million people were evacuated out of harm’s way in Cuba, a monumental feat that Gulf Coast officials would like to learn more about.

President Raul Castro arrived in Russia on Wednesday, the first trip there by a Cuban president in more than two decades. While Russia-Cuba ties hit bottom when the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, trade and cooperation between the two countries are now on the upturn.

Specialists from several countries discussed issues including changes in the family, violence against women, child abuse and homophobia as part of the panel dedicated to Family, Women and Gender Values of the 11th International Pedagogy Congress being held in the Cuban capital through Friday, reported IPS.

Cuban President Raul Castro is expected to arrive in Russia on Wednesday for a week-long visit, confirmed the office of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Tuesday in a press release published in the local media. Medvedev visited Cuba in late November when he held talks with both Raul Castro and also met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro. A number of agreements are expected to be signed during Castro’s visit.

Cuba’s new social security law takes effect Monday after its approval at the end of December by the legislature. The new regulations increase the age of retirement by five years to 60 for women and 65 for men and will augment benefits in numerous cases. The law’s provisions will be implemented gradually over the coming years.

The authorities and inhabitants of Viñales Valley, a highly popular tourist area declared a World Cultural Landscape Site, are speeding up the restoration of the homes in that area 160 kms. west of Havana, most of which were affected in one way or another by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Panama expects to export US $400 million in products to Cuba in 2009, up from around $180 million, as well as import at least two or three times the $28 million last year, stated Severo Sousa, vice minister of Commerce at the end of a bilateral meeting on services and investments. Earlier in the month Panamanian President Martin Torrijos paid an official visit to the island and met with President Raul Castro and other high officials.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Friday that the United States should take “the first step” on the road to improved bilateral relations, reported IPS. In statements to the press at a meeting of the Non Aligned Movement in Guatemala, the official said Cuban authorities are ready to sit down at a table and “talk in a civilized manner” but that the initiative for such an encounter should come from the US. “The ball is in their court,” he said.