Cuban Government to Grant Loan to Cooperatives to Boost Coffee, Cocoa and Honey Productions

<p style="text-align: justify;">2010.12.28 - 14:32:32 / web@radiorebelde.icrt.cu. Havana, Cuba.- Cuban Agriculture Minister Gustavo Rodriguez said the government will grant loans to cooperatives in an effort to increase the production of coffee, cocoa and honey, which at the moment are bought in the international market.During the second meeting of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) Rodriguez explained that 244 agricultural cooperatives will take part in this initiative, and that they will receive a commercial loan, which the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture will pay gradually with more coffee, cocoa and honey. Read More

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Cuba commutes lone remaining death sentence

<p style="text-align: justify;">AFP.Cuba commutes lone remaining death sentence: group AFP/File – File photo shows a group of inmates in the courtyard at Combinado del Este prison in Havana, Cuba. Cuba's …– Tue Dec 28, 10:02 pm ET. HAVANA (AFP) – Cuba's Supreme Tribunal commuted the death sentence of an anti-Castro activist who was the last death row inmate on the island, a rights group said. Read More

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Cuba's jobless snap up self-employment licenses

<p style="text-align: justify;">Published December 28, 2010.EFE.Havana. Cubans without formal employment in recent weeks have snapped up more than 60 percent of the new licenses issued for self-employment, Communist Party daily Granma said Tuesday.The newspaper said that "thousands of Cubans" have applied for documents to go into business for themselves, a type of employment embodied in the new reforms with which the Raul Castro government aims to "modernize" the socialist model. Read More

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York YWCA executive director explores the Cuban experience

<p style="text-align: justify;">Deb Stock, executive director of the York YWCA, traveled to Cuba for five days in early November.By TED CZECH. Daily Record/Sunday News. Updated: 12/28/2010 05:23:24 PM EST. York, PA - After spending five days in Cuba, Deb Stock said she realized that per capita, women there have more positions of leadership than their American counterparts."I was surprised that there is equity in Cuba," she said. "I had an assumption before I went there that there would not be." Read More

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Cuba May Allow Baseball Players To Play In Other Countries Professionally; But Not In The U.S.

<p style="text-align: justify;">Adam Fusfeld | Dec. 28, 2010. The Baseball Federation of Cuba, headed by Fidel Castro's son, wants to allow baseball players to play elsewhere in exchange for a portion of their salary, rather than continue to be embarrassed by high-profile defections, Yahoo! Sports reports.While MLB teams have shelled out more than $75 million to Cuban transplants over the past 24 months, they could not operate lawfully under those circumstances considering the longstanding U.S. embargo on Cuba. Read More

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Armed Cuba-Bound Traveler Charged

<p style="text-align: justify;">December 27, 2010 10:57 PM. Reporting David Sutta. MIAMI (CBS4) – He was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and with theft for possessing a stolen weapon that was taken more than 14 years ago. Read More

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Sahrawis Recall Cuba with Gratitude

<p style="text-align: justify;">Escrito por Dayami Interián García. martes, 28 de diciembre de 2010. El-Aaiun, SADR, Dec 28 (Prensa Latina) The gratitude the Sahrawi people feel towards Cuba is incomparable, with only the sands of the desert a reminder of the geographic distance between the two peoples. Read More

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In Cuba, holiday cheer from Uncle Sam

<p style="text-align: justify;">Reuters. By Marc Frank Marc Frank. HAVANA (Reuters) – Cubans who receive money from the United States are getting a cash bonus this holiday season from an Obama administration decision that should also cut the flow of underground cash between the two countries. Read More

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Top court takes up death-sentence appeal

<p style="text-align: justify;">The Cuban Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing an appeal from Humberto Eladio Real Suárez, an exile from Miami who was sentenced to death in 1996 for killing a Cuban guard during a raid in Villa Clara. Read More

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Telecom Italia will sell its shares in Etecsa back to the Cuban government, paper says

<p style="text-align: justify;">From the Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore: Telecom Italia is preparing to bid farewell to Cuba. According to rumors, the sale of its stake in Etecsa, the Cuban telecommunications company, is in the final stretch.Telecom's 27-percent share, which in the last six months Telecom valued at 367 million euros, would be acquired by the&nbsp; Cuban government, which has control over the rest of the capital.<br /> <br /> Read More

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