Benicio Del Toro - A Latino rebel becomes our man in Havana

<p style="text-align: justify;">Friday, 29 April 2011. Benicio Del Toro is agitated. The Usual Suspects star is pacing to and fro outside the picturesque Bar Silvia in central Havana, where he is directing his first film. It's not often that the dashing star looks out of his comfort zone, but right now he's trying to shoot a scene for 7 Days in Havana in which the actor Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are All Right) chats with locals at the famous hang-out. In the apartment above the bar a dog barks incessantly. As Del Toro looks into the monitor, watching a gorgeous couple waltz past, he worries that the scene is going to look "like a video". Read More

---

Just outside Havana, Cuba

<p style="text-align: justify;">Thursday, April 28, 2011. Just outside Havana, Cuba, there is a small workers town called La Lisa. It is also the home town of one of Cuba’s boxing champions, Roberto Balado Mendez, whom, after an accident was forced to retire and, with the help of Muhammed Ali, decided to open his own boxing school.While it isn’t a fancy place, to say the least – with car tires instead of bean bags – or share the tourist glory of school in Havana, it has produced so far five national and Olympic champions. Read More

---

Bill Proposes to Halt Cuba Oil Drilling in Gulf

<p style="text-align: justify;">Friday, 29 Apr 2011 01:35 PM. By Martin Gould. Florida GOP Rep. Vern Buchanan is pulling out the stops to prevent Cuba from drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.Buchanan has introduced a bill to deny U.S. drilling permits to any company that works with the Castro government, Capitol Hill Cubans reports.Buchanan, whose district borders on the Gulf, said the Cuban drilling is planned for just 50 miles from the Florida coast. Spills would inevitably affect the United States which stands to gain nothing from the oilfield. Read More

---

NATO playing the Nazi-fascist role in Libya - Fidel

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba. Fri 29 Apr. 2011, 15:30 CAT . FIDEL Castro has said NATO intervention in Libya has taken on a Nazi-fascist character that may be used against any Third World nation.In his Reflections by Comrade Fidel published on Thursday, the former Cuban president stated that while one might agree or not with Moammar Gaddafi’s political ideas no one had the right to question the existence of Libya as an independent state and member of the United Nations. Read More

---

Festival on Caribbean Birds Underway in Cuba

<p style="text-align: justify;">2011.04.28 - 15:03:26 /radiorebelde.icrt.cu. HAVANA, Cuba.- Cuba is hosting from April 22 to May 22 of the Festival of Birds Endemic to the Caribbean which serves the purpose of promoting the knowledge about bird species exclusive to the region, raising awareness about their protection and fostering environmental education.In statements to Granma, Eneider Perez Mena, a biologist with the Cuban Ecology and Systematics Institute, said the Festival includes bird washing, lectures, talks about environmental education and contests for youngsters and teenagers aimed at growing a responsible attitude towards Cuban birds. Read More

---

Painting from the 18th Century Discovered in Ancient Cuban Chapel

<p style="text-align: justify;">2011.04.28 - 18:38:25 / radiorebelde.icrt.cu. SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba. - An original painting from the 18th century was found in the former chapel of the Saint Basil the Great Seminary, of Santiago de Cuba, which is undergoing restoration to be turned into a cultural place.Through religious symbols, the painting shows characteristics of the high-ranking ecclesiastic hierarchy of Santiago de Cuba Dioceses.The work of art was found on above the higher wooden arc giving access to the vault. Read More

---

C&T expanding Cuba charter routes

<p style="text-align: justify;">C&amp;T Charters will begin charter flights from San Juan to Havana and is planning to offer Cuba service from Chicago and Atlanta, Caribbean News Digital reported.The Miami-based company already offers seven flights a week from Miami, and once-a-week flights from New York.C&amp;T Vice President Gary González told the Web publication on the sidelines of a conference of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) in San Juan that his company plans to start flights from San Juan in June. The company will offer two flights a week. Read More

---

Iran, Cuba firm to deepen ties

<p style="text-align: justify;">HAVANA, April 29 (MNA) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast held separate talks with Cuban foreign minister’s deputies Ana Teresita Gonzalez Fraga and Marcos Rodriguez Costa on Wednesday morning in which the sides expressed their willingness to strengthen ties.In talks with Teresita Gonzalez Fraga, Mehmanparast said Tehran and Havana share common views and concerns on various international issues and this “can lay the groundwork for strengthening bilateral relations” especially in economic areas. Read More

---

A Family’s Legacy, Afro-Cuban Jazz

<p style="text-align: justify;"><br /> Daniel Barry for The New York Times. By LARRY ROHTER. Published: April 28, 2011. IF there is such a thing as a first family of Afro-Cuban jazz, the O’Farrill clan has a right to claim that distinction. Its members helped invent the hybrid genre back in the 1940s, when Chico O’Farrill came to New York from Havana, and in recent years they have worked to reinvigorate the music despite barriers in both Cuba and the United States. Read More

---

Cuban inventor turns trash into farm tools

<p style="text-align: justify;">Reuters.By Jeff Franks. GUIRA DE MELENA, Cuba (Reuters) - A solitary man trudges through a palm-lined corn field in the Cuban countryside, pulling behind him a rickety contraption that President Raul Castro would love.The man, Yolando Perez Baez, is showing off his latest invention, a spindly, spider-like piece of equipment that sprays pesticide along six rows of crops, instead of the one row he could dose using his usual backpack fumigator. Read More

---