More People to Benefit from Cuba-Venezuela Free-Eye Care Program

<p style="text-align: justify;">HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 15 (acn) The Mision Milagro Foundation in Venezuela —which provides free eye care to low-income people— hopes to increase the number of weekly surgeries in 800 in order to improve ophthalmological services in public hospitals. Read More

---

New undersea fiber-optic communications cable linking Venezuela and Cuba extended to Jamaica

<p style="text-align: justify;">The Associated Press.02/15/2011. KINGSTON, Jamaica - An extension of a new undersea fiber-optic cable connecting Cuba and Venezuela has reached Jamaica.Venezuela's government says the now 1,150-mile-long (1,850-kilometre-long) cable was installed Monday in the Jamaican resort town of Ocho Rios. A second segment will extend the cable to other Caribbean countries. Read More

---

Yaniet Marrero is now the Star of Cuban Chess

<p style="text-align: justify;">Granma Daily. The Grand Master (GM) from Las Tunas, Yaniet Marrero, won the national women's chess championship title, here on Wednesday, beating Oleiny Linares from Santiago.In a marathon day, lasting over seven hours, the new monarch dethroned her rival, who held the crown won in 2010 in Holguin. Read More

---

Private farmers reviving Cuba’s pineapple production

<p style="text-align: justify;">2/15/2011. The opening to the private farmer sector in 2008 made it possible to begin the recovery of pineapple production in the central province of Ciego de Avila, known in Cuba for the traditional cultivation of that fruit. Read More

---

Cuban Box Terminal Will Become Transshipment Hub

<p style="text-align: justify;">Feb 15, 2011. The Journal of Commerce Online. Asian cargo transiting expanded Panama Canal to use new facilities. BALBOA, Panama — A new container terminal in the Cuban port of Mariel will become an important transshipment hub for Asian cargo transiting the expanded Panama Canal after 2014, according to Rodolfo Sabonge, vice president of planning and marketing for the Panama Canal Authority.The Brazilian construction company Grupo Odebrecht is building the new terminal west of Havana with the help of a $300 million loan from the Brazilian government. Read More

---

Itu hails Cuba's new high speed internet connectivity

<p style="text-align: justify;">GENEVA — The International Telecoms Union has hailed Cuba's new undersea fibre optic cable that will dramatically increase the country's connectivity with the outside world.“This propels Cuba into the high-speed era, taking connectivity from a mere 380 megabits per second to true ultra-fast broadband,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré, who was guest of honor at the ceremony in Santiago de Cuba last week. Read More

---

Deregulation of food distribution taking shape

<p style="text-align: justify;">In another step towards deregulation of food distribution and creation of a de facto wholesale market to supply ailing private businesses at non-convertible peso prices, the government is allowing sugar and imported rice to be sold on “parallel food markets” at regulated non-convertible peso (CUP) prices.According to resolution 21/11 of the Interior Trade Ministry, the introduction of rice and sugar in state-owned “Ideales” stores and offer-and-demand farmers markets will be “gradual.” Read More

---

British telecom ties into Cuba-Jamaica fiberoptic cable

<p style="text-align: justify;">LIME, the Caribbean subsidiary of London-based Cable &amp; Wireless Communications plc, said it is the “strategic landing partner” in Jamaica of the Cuban-Venezuelan state joint venture that operates the new Venezuela-Cuba-Jamaica fiberoptic cable.In a press release, LIME said it signed a contract late last year with Telecomunicaciones Gran Caribe S.A. to be the strategic landing partner in Jamaica, and for Cable &amp; Wireless to be the carrier of voice and date traffic from Cuba to Europe. Read More

---

Cuba Plans To Put U.S. Government Worker On Trial

<p style="text-align: justify;">February 15, 2011. An American jailed in Cuba is accused of acting on a U.S. plot to destabilize the Caribbean nation by spreading access to the Internet. U.S. officials insist the 61-year-old Maryland resident's activities were a harmless attempt to improve Internet access for the island's small Jewish community. Read More

---

Tiempo Libre to play the Lincoln Theatre

<p style="text-align: justify;">Jorge Gomez and his musical compañeros were going to make timba music, despite what people told them about the challenges of finding audiences for the hybrid form among U.S. audiences.In 2000, Gomez found himself in Miami, reuniting with many friends from their days playing the clubs around Havana, Cuba. They had each had classical training alongside their cultural accumulation of Latin and Afro-Cuban musical styles like son, salsa and even santeria. Read More

---