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News from Cuba as of
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HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters):  Deputy speaker of Britain's House of Commons and Labour MP Sylvia Heal has called for improved European relations with Cuba that were upset by human rights concerns in 2003. A crackdown on dissent ordered by Castro led the EU to shun talks with Cuban officials. read more.. |
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| MIAMI, USA (UPI): A Cuban exile militant has hired a leading Miami lawyer who represented fellow Cubans convicted of weapons charges, The Miami Herald reported Tuesday. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Communist Cuba remained one of the more important markets for American farmers in 2006 despite a decades-old trade embargo, a US-based organization that tracks the sales said on Wednesday. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): India and Cuba are forging closer economic ties through cancer vaccine research and oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, officials said this week. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): A senior Cuban official said on Tuesday that Fidel Castro is recovering "very well" but gave no indication when, or if, Cuba's ailing leader might return to public life. read more.. |
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HAVANA, Cuba (AFP):  It may be educational, but Cuban state television is unbearable, if you ask Ivette, a homemaker hooked on soap operas she watches on an illegal cable signal. "I love to see those fancy women, all done up in hairdos and makeup, and those studs," she said. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): India wants to strengthen economic ties with Cuba that already include the oil and biotechnology sectors, the visiting Indian foreign minister said, local media reported Tuesday. read more.. |
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| PARIS, France: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) took issue Tuesday with comments by Cuban communications minister Ramiro Valdes on Monday describing the Internet as a "tool for global extermination" and as a "wild colt" that needed to be tamed. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (UPI): Cuba's Communist Party has warned the island's populace against using or building makeshift satellite dishes, Granma newspaper reported. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Six months after surgery forced him to relinquish power, Cuban leader Fidel Castro is consulted on major issues but does not "interfere" in day-to-day governing, his brother and Cuba's acting president said. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Acting Cuban President Raul Castro said on Thursday his brother Fidel was improving and "on top of everything" in his first comments to the foreign press since stepping in for the 80-year-old Cuban leader six months ago. read more.. |
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| MIAMI, USA: The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has expressed concern at the Cuban government’s ongoing policy against free speech and press freedom after learning of a recent court sentencing of an independent journalist. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): The Rev. Nerva Cot, the first woman bishop named by the Episcopal Church in a developing nation, said she will bring a feminine touch to leadership of her rapidly expanding congregation in Cuba. read more.. |
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| CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): The health of Cuban leader Fidel Castro is steadily improving and he has begun eating food again, Venezuela's ambassador to Havana, Ali Rodriguez, said in a television interview on Thursday. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuba on Thursday deported to Colombia a notorious drug cartel boss whose extradition has been sought by the United States, a Cuban official who took part in the deportation told AFP. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Leading Cuban dissidents who are denied access to Internet at home now have their messages on websites thanks to the work of exiled friends and family abroad. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (UPI): Cuban officials have criticised a decision to show US-funded TV Marti on Spanish-language stations in Miami picked up by satellite in Cuba. TV and Radio Marti are officially banned in Cuba, though the signal can be picked up by illegal satellite dishes. read more.. |
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HAVANA, Cuba (AFP):  The old saying necessity is the mother of invention is put to the test in Cuba, because of a 45-year-old embargo that prevents Cuba from importing US goods. The US bans exports to the island and few Cubans have access to cars imported from elsewhere, read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Cuba criticized the United States on Tuesday for denying visas to Cuban intellectuals invited to a Soviet studies conference and barring American cyclists from competing in Cuba. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Former India one-day all rounder Robin Singh will form a coaching team to train players in baseball-mad Cuba where the sport is enjoying a revival. read more.. |
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HAVANA, Cuba (AFP):  Talk in Ernest Hemingway's former Havana watering hole often turns to the old man and the daiquiri and, at times, to the 45-year-old embargo that officially prevents US fans from tippling to his memory in the Cuba he loved. "We're not even supposed to be here," read more.. |
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| WASHINGTON, USA (AFP): The United States government is to step up its broadcasting campaigns in Cuba, along with North Korea and Iran, under President George W. Bush's new budget plans unveiled Monday. read more.. |
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| BRADES, Montserrat: Based on advice to strengthen transparent non-political links with Caribbean and regional neighbours, the governments of Montserrat and Cuba plan to explore ways of assisting each other. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (ACN): As part of the US economic blockade of Cuba, the American Hilton Hotel chain has announced a denial of bookings to Cuban delegations in all its facilities around the world. read more.. |
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| In response to Mike O'Rourke regarding "Cubans are so full of it", it might be a bit asking too much for one to be aware of what they are talking about before making such remarks. The US policy on Cuba is quite a hypocritical stance. read more.. |
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| With reference to "Embargo, at 45, still at forefront of US-Cuba relations", the Cubans are so full of it. Like ships from the rest of the world can't make it to Cuba. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Forty-five years after the United States imposed an embargo against communist Cuba, the sanctions remain at the forefront of relations between the two foes, even in the absence of the ailing President Fidel Castro. read more.. |
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| HOUSTON, USA (Reuters): The US government took another step on Wednesday to keep holding an anti-Fidel Castro militant, who is accused of bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976, without declaring him a terrorist. read more.. |
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| CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): Cuban President Fidel Castro is having a festive time, his friend and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday, dismissing rumors that Castro is dying, six months after surgery. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): A top Cuban official said Thursday he didn't expect any change in the near future in US policy toward the island, which is subjected to a 45-year-old US embargo. read more.. |
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HAVANA, Cuba (AFP):  The latest footage of Cuban President Fidel Castro appeared to support official claims his recovery from surgery is going well, though it remains unclear whether he would resume the leadership he handed to his brother Raul six months ago Wednesday. read more.. |
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| WASHINGTON, USA (AFP): The United States admitted Wednesday it had no idea about Cuban President Fidel Castro's state of health, hours after Cuban television broadcast new pictures of its ailing communist nemesis. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuba's President Fidel Castro was shown on Cuban television Tuesday meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez in the first images of the ailing leader broadcast in three months. read more.. |
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| It never ceases to amaze me just how close minded and narrow people can be. There definitely is a need to respond to the negative and often incorrect 'facts' many Caymanians have about Cuba. read more.. |
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| WASHINGTON, USA (AFP): The United States has refused to budge from its five-decade Cuba policy during Raul Castro's six months in power, despite world pressure and momentum in Congress for dialogue, experts say. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (ACN): Cuba and Antigua and Barbuda on Wednesday signed a sports cooperation agreement, which both countries view as a new step towards strengthening their bilateral ties. read more.. |
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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados:  The Barbados Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Business Development Minister, Senator Lynette Eastmond, held talks this week with Cuba’s Ambassador to Barbados, Pedro Garcia Roque. The two, along with other senior officials from the Ministry, discussed many topical issues. read more.. |
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WASHINGTON, USA (Bloomberg):  Charles Rangel, the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is betting that, with Cuban leader Fidel Castro in failing health and Democrats in control of Congress, lawmakers will scale back trade and travel embargoes on the communist island. read more.. |
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BRADES, Montserrat:  The Government of Montserrat and the Government of Cuba plan to explore ways of assisting each other in several areas. CM Dr Lowell Lewis says Cuba is keen to assist Montserrat with clearing up its backlog of 400 persons waiting for ophthalmology assessment, read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Issac Delgado, one of Cuba's most popular salsa bandleaders, has defected to the United States to pursue an international career, a former associate said on Friday. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuban President Fidel Castro last appeared in public six months ago, but the seclusion forced upon him by intestinal surgery has not kept him from the international limelight he cherishes. read more.. |
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HAVANA, Cuba (AFP):  Six months after President Fidel Castro handed over power to his brother Raul, Cubans are coming to appreciate a different and more pragmatic style of leadership, even though the siblings have stood side-by-side since the 1959 revolution. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): The number of tourists visiting Cuba dropped 3.6 per cent last year due to high prices and not political uncertainty over Fidel Castro's illness, travel industry sources said. read more.. |
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP):  A letter from Fidel Castro to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has revived the view that the ailing Cuban leader is hanging on and attentive to politics. Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage on Wednesday delivered the missive signed by Castro to his close ally Chavez, read more.. |
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| CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): Cuba's Vice President Carlos Lage made a surprise visit to Caracas Wednesday to bolster his Communist regime's ties with its principal ally, the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): With little known about the condition of ailing President Fidel Castro over the past six months, Cuba has been abuzz with wild rumours, further fueled by speculation reaching the island from abroad. read more.. |
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| MIAMI, USA (AFP): Six months after Fidel Castro handed power to his brother Raul, the parties planned by exiled Cubans in anticipation of the regime's collapse have been shelved, as the younger Castro consolidates power, experts say. read more.. |
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WASHINGTON, USA (Bloomberg):  US Commerce Secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, has ruled out any easing of the US trade and travel embargo on Cuba until after all remnants of the Fidel Castro regime are removed from power. The US has restricted trade since Castro took power in 1959. read more.. |
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| CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg): Venezuela will grant Cuba access to the South American nation's first-ever satellite, due to be launched in September, as ties between the states deepen and the health of Cuban President Fidel Castro grows more uncertain. read more.. |
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| An article on Haiti that appeared in Time magazine in January 1973 – at the end of the dictatorship of “Papa Doc” Duvalier and the commencement of his son “Baby Doc’s" harsh rule – states: “There is also a sound on the city streets that to most urban Americans is unfamiliar: laughter.” read more.. |
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HAVANA, Cuba (AFP):  State-run television in communist Cuba prides itself on its educational programs and the social values of its homegrown soap operas but does not shy away from hits like New York Cops and CSI. The US series and the soap operas, draw a faithful audience. read more.. |
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| PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad: Cuba clinched third place in the 2006/7 Digicel Caribbean Cup and US$50,000 prize money after a 2-1 win over Guadeloupe that was more convincing than the scoreline suggests. read more.. |
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| WASHINGTON, USA (AFP): Two US lawmakers, a Republican and a Democrat, warned Tuesday that the United States was losing influence in Cuba at a critical time with leader Fidel Castro sidelined by surgery. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Cuba's armed forces, which run the Communist country's most efficient companies, joined a nascent public debate on future economic policy on Tuesday and appeared to take a stance opposed to full free-market reforms. read more.. |
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HAVANA, Cuba (AFP):  With power transferred to Fidel Castro's brother Raul, Cuban dissidents have begun testing the island's political waters after decades of ironclad rule, but found little hope of fundamental changes. "I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel," said Martha Beatriz Roque, read more.. |
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| EL PASO, USA (Reuters): An anti-Fidel Castro militant accused of bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976 pleaded not guilty on Monday to US immigration charges, the latest round in a long fight by the US government to keep him in jail. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): For a tiny Caribbean nation, Cuba has a big reputation for its sporting prowess but that is increasingly coming under threat. The impoverished Communist country has long failed to halt the flow of talent that escapes its homeland. read more.. |
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HAVANA, Cuba (AFP):  Unable to get original parts because of a 45-year-old US embargo, Harley-Davidson aficionados resort to ingenuity and Soviet truck parts to keep the decades-old US classics on Cuban roads. Cuban fans, estimate there are about 100 Harleys left in the communist-run state, read more.. |
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HAVANA, Cuba (AFP):  Wrapped in a figure-hugging sequined dress, the statuesque Chantal swayed languorously in the steamy Havana night during a transvestite show that reflected Cuba's slowly growing tolerance of homosexuals. While their lives are getting easier, they still face a lot of prejudice. read more.. |
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| MIAMI, USA (UPI): The US Department of Homeland Security has taken custody of 27 Cuban immigrants who landed on an island near Key Biscayne, Florida. The boatload landed on Boca Chita, 16 miles south of Key Biscayne, at about 6 a.m. Saturday. read more.. |
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| HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters): Salomon Mitrani sat through his wedding ceremony. After all, at 84 years old he finds it hard to stand. By Cuban law, he has been married to his wife, Pilar, for 55 years, read more.. |
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HAVANA, Cuba (AFP):  Outside the US diplomatic mission, President Bush is portrayed as a bloodthirsty vampire, on a billboard to illustrate Cuba's claim that Washington supports terrorism. The communist government is waging a major campaign to demand the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles. read more.. |
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| PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad: Trinidad and Tobago showed just why they were the Caribbean’s favourite side this past summer when they overcame a very strong Cuban side to reach the Digicel Caribbean Cup Final, where they will play Haiti for the right to be crowned champions. read more.. |
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| RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Bloomberg): Cuban President Fidel Castro's health is improving even as his situation remains "difficult" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said during a speech in Brazil at the Rio de Janeiro state legislature. read more.. |
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| WASHINGTON, USA (Reuters): US lawmakers, with an eye on reports of failing health of Cuban President Fidel Castro, said they intend in the new Democratic-led Congress to seek to ease restrictions on travel and trade with the communist island. read more.. |
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