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UN Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) Director General Koichiro Matsuura begins an official visit to Cuba on Monday. It is his first visit to the island since assuming the post in 1999.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez arrived in Havana, Cuba on Sunday morning following other recent state visits by the presidents of Ecuador, Panama, Brazil, Uruguay, Russia and China. The South American country’s trade with Cuba has been insignificant but there is great potential in several areas including fishing, tourism, food processing industry, plastics, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, energy, auto parts, aeronautics as well as electronic components and in construction. Fernandez will be in Cuba until Tuesday when she travels to Venezuela.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez is scheduled to leave late Saturday night for Cuba on a three-day official visit. She will be the first president from that South American country to visit the island in 23 years. Fernandez’ agenda is focused on reactivating bilateral trade and cooperation in science, technology and tourism. During her stay she will meet with Cuban President Raul Castro and top cabinet members.

Cuban authorities recently evaluated the reorganization of primary healthcare services (2007-8) to keep up the standards previously achieved, said Joaquin Garcia, deputy minister of Public Health on the nightly TV roundtable program. Thursday’s show was dedicated to the challenges facing the mainstay in the island’s social programs, affected in recent years by the stationing tens of thousands of doctors and other health workers abroad and because of the deterioration of many hospital installations. Garcia acknowledged that progress has been made, but “we don’t think that everything is well, we know there are deficiencies and problems to resolve.”

The Cuban Workers Federation (CTC) and the Young Communist League (UJC) are carrying out a joint strategy with which they aim to achieve a greater incorporation of young people into the work force, reported IPS. According to official reports, the unemployment rate currently stands at 1.6 per cent, but the authorities have expressed concern about the existence of 189,000 working-age persons who are not looking for a job and are not studying. Low salaries, family remittances and easier money hustling are some of the reasons.

The Cuban Workers Federation (CTC) and the Young Communist League (UJC) are carrying out a joint strategy with which they aim to achieve a greater incorporation of young people into the work force, reported IPS. According to official reports, the unemployment rate currently stands at 1.6 per cent, but the authorities have expressed concern about the existence of 189,000 working-age persons who are not looking for a job and are not studying. Low salaries, family remittances and easier money hustling are some of the reasons.

US President-elect Barack Obama is willing to lift the restrictions on travel and family remittances to Cuba for Cuban-Americans, future Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday. Clinton said that Obama believes that Cuban-Americans are the best ambassadors of democracy, freedom and free market economy. Clinton did not say whether the travel ban should be lifted on the rest of US citizens wanting to visit the neighboring island nation.

The government of Brazil offered advisors to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to try to improve that country’s diplomatic relations with Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia, affirmed Brazilian Minister of Strategic Affairs Mangabeira Unger in statements to O Estado de Sao Paulo daily, reported on by IPS. Brazilian President Lula da Silva has encouraged Obama to drop the US blockade on Cuba as a key step to better relations with the region.

The Cuban government approved the resumption of granting permits to private taxi drivers in urban and rural areas — they had been suspended since 1999 —, reported IPS on Monday. Transport was one of the sectors most affected by the economic crisis that began in the early 1990s and which has forced the authorities to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in its ongoing recovery.

US filmmaker Oliver Stone is in Cuba as of Saturday to interview President Raul Castro reported IPS, which based its report on a statement by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In 2004, Stone, a three-time Oscar winner made the documentary titled “Looking for Fidel”, after over 30 hours of talks with the former president.