Cuba probes dealings of Canadian trading firm

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Marc Frank. HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban authorities are investigating the business dealings of Canadian firm Tri-Star Caribbean, one of the best known trading companies on the island, foreign business and diplomatic sources said this week. The cause of the investigation was not clear, but it appeared to be the latest looking into kickbacks involving Cuban imports, sources said. Company President Sarkis Yacoubian was picked up in mid-July for questioning, they said, and since then as many as 50 to 60 people mainly company sales personnel, state purchasers and functionaries, have been questioned and in some cases imprisoned. Read More

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Raul Castro showing impatience at slow reform pace

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Jeff Franks. HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro has sounded increasingly impatient in recent months with the slow implementation of his economic reforms, which he publicly blames mostly on bureaucratic sloth and resistance to change. In public statements, he has accused government cadres of laziness, corruption, neglect and ideological rigidity and has repeatedly urged them to reject old revolutionary dogma and embrace new ways of thinking. Read More

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The Good and Bad of Reggaeton in Cuba

<p style="text-align: justify;">Mario Vizcaino Serrat. A Cuban musicologist attempts to expand a wide-ranging personal study on reggaeton of which she advanced details during a conference on the defects and virtues of that genre, reviled by some and adored by others. Yarelis Domínguez, research specialist at Havana’s Museo Nacional de la Música (National Museum of Music), highlighted the “resilience” of reggaeton. Some reject this genre, while others revere it, including popular singers and dance music groups from Cuba who cultivate it merged with other variants. Read More

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Tony Perez: Luis Tiant, Minnie Miñoso should be in Hall of Fame too

<p style="text-align: justify;">Aug 21, 2011.By Cesar Brioso, USA TODAY.NEW YORK -- Hall of Famer Tony Perez thinks there should be at least a couple more Cuban players enshrined in Cooperstown."Including some that are sitting here today," Perez said Saturday at a congress on Cuban baseball history at Fordham University School of Law. Read More

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Cuba looking to keep top athletes from leaving

<p style="text-align: justify;">August 21. Defections have hurt country’s efforts on international level.ANNE-MARIE GARCIA Associated Press. HAVANA — Cuba’s version of the New York Yankees, the powerhouse Industriales, won the country’s 2010 baseball championship with lights-out pitching by Armando Rivero and Joan Socarras and stellar hitting from Leguim Barroso. All three players have since defected, along with four other members of the championship squad, leaving the punchless team struggling to a losing season this year. Read More

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Diana Nyad won't let her dream flounder

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Bill Dwyre. August 17, 2011, 11:42 p.m.It has been a little more than a week since Diana Nyad allowed herself to be pulled out of the rugged waters somewhere between Cuba and Key West, Fla."The fairy tale didn't end well," she says, "but I still have control over the fairy tale."Her second attempt at swimming from Cuba to Florida comes up short, but at 61, she's still not ready to quit.Diana Nyad is overcome with emotion when addressing the media following her second failed attempt to swim from Cuba to the Florida Keys. (Rob O'Neal / Associated Press / Florida Keys News Bureau) Read More

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Local Cuban Americans ready for takeoff to homeland

<p style="text-align: justify;">By CLOE CABRERA&nbsp; | The Tampa Tribune.August 17, 2011. ST. PETERSBURG. It's been nearly 50 years since Luis Garcia last saw his native homeland of Cuba. He was 9 years old when his mother and father brought him to the United States when Fidel Castro took power."I always knew I wanted to go back one day," says Garcia, 58, from his home in St. Petersburg. "I always wondered what it would be like to go back and see (Cuba) again." Read More

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First Americans in Cuba under easier U.S. travel rules

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Jeff Franks. HAVANA (Reuters) - The first group of Americans to tour Cuba under new, more liberal U.S. travel regulations have been greeted by hugs, handshakes and a welcoming Cuban government, according to a trip organizer. The 30 travelers are pioneers in a new era of "people-to-people" exchanges the Obama administration approved in January to "enhance the free flow of information" to Cubans and over the objections of those who favor a hardline against the communist government. Read More

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New Documents on Bay of Pigs Invasion Revealed

<p style="text-align: justify;">HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 15 (acn) New secret documents, recently released, describe how an operator of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) shot, by mistake, against his own pilots, during the Bay of Pigs invasion on April, 1961. According to these archives, the main official of the sinister US organization on board of one of the mercenary brigade's transport boats shot 75mm. recoilless rifles and 55mm. machine guns against the aircrafts, and hit one of them. Read More

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Many Cubans living abroad can’t return to Cuba

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Juan O. Tamayo.elnuevoherald.com. Tampa teenager Melissa González wanted to visit her ailing grandfather in Cuba. But her travel agency told her that the Cuban government had turned down her request for an entry permit, without explaination. Whatever the reason, Melissa now belongs to the little-known group of Cubans living abroad who are banned by Havana from visiting the island — anywhere from 77,000 to 300,000 — for reasons that range from illegal departures from Cuba to political activism. Read More

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