Cuba blockade is 50-year bad policy

<p style="text-align: justify;">By: Sam Webb. April 26 2011. Jimmy Carter is an exemplary ex-president. He beats the rest of his counterparts hands down. He is in a "league of his own." The most recent confirmation of this fact was his March 28-31 visit to Cuba where he called for lifting the nearly 51-year-old blockade against Cuba (along with freedom for the Cuban 5 - more about that in another column). I hope that the Obama administration and a majority in Congress will heed his advice. Read More

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Cuba adjusts plans amid price hikes, weather fears

<p style="text-align: justify;"><br /> Tue Apr 26, 2011 12:00pm EDT.By Marc Frank. HAVANA, April 26 (Reuters) - Rising food and fuel prices and fears that an active hurricane season looms have Cuba tightening its belt, according to government leaders and local economists."Just a few months into 2011 and according to the most recent data, imports this year will cost an additional $800 million for the same amount of goods we planned to purchase, forcing us to adjust the plan approved in December," President Raul Castro told a Communist Party Congress last week. Read More

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Many Americans want to visit Cuba, survey finds

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Jane Engle Los Angeles Times Staff Writer. April 26, 2011, 11:49 a.m.Most Americans would at least consider visiting Cuba if all travel restrictions were lifted, according to an informal survey by Travel Leaders, a Minneapolis-based network of travel agencies. While not scientific, the survey of nearly 1,000 Americans adds fuel to the debate over travel to the Communist-ruled island.The results were released Tuesday, just days after the U.S. Treasury Department issued new guidelines to implement loosened restrictions on travel to Cuba that President Obama announced in January. Read More

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UN Highlights Cuba's Help to Chernobyl Victims

<p style="text-align: justify;">By: leana Ferrer Fonte .United Nations, Apr 26 (Prensa Latina) More than 25,000 people, including 21,340 children, have benefited from the Cuban humanitarian program for victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the United Nations reported Tuesday.The information is included in a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon by Cuba's permanent mission to the UN on the 25th anniversary of that tragedy. Read More

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Reforestation Demanded at Zaza River’s Basin

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Jose L. Camellón — Escambray. Reforestation actions continue to take place around Zaza river’s hydrographic basin, the second most important in the island, which takes up 37% of the territorial area of the central Cuban province of Sancti Spiritus.A study was began at the end of last year to identify the best locations for planting the trees here as well as in other similar areas in Siguaney and Tuinucu. Zaza river’s hydrographic basin is the country’s least planted. Read More

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Businesses will be checked at random

<p style="text-align: justify;">About 750 state-run companies will be targeted for a surprise audit beginning Monday, April 25, as part of the Nationwide Verification of Internal Controls, Cuba's Comptroller General (gbp) announced.Gladys Bejerano Portela told journalists that between April 25 and May 31 about 3,000 auditors, economists and accountants will visit business companies chosen at random, to check on their activities in the first quarter of the year. Read More

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Cuba's labor union calls for support of economic reforms

<p style="text-align: justify;">14:11, April 26, 2011. The Cuban Workers Union (CWU) on Monday called on all Cubans to participate in a grand Labor Day parade slated for Sunday to show support for current leader Raul Castro's efforts to reform the economy."Cubans have many reasons not to miss the parade and to fill the streets and squares of the island to show the support of workers and the people to the conclusions of the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and to reaffirm the unity around the Party, the Revolution, Fidel and Raul," the CWU said in a statement. Read More

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Cuba plans parade backing reforms

<p style="text-align: justify;">Agence France-Presse April 26, 2011. Cuba's only trade union called Monday for a massive May 1 parade supporting President Raul Castro's raft of economic reforms approved by the Communist party this month."This will be the best chance for Cuban workers, with their massive, radical and revolutionary participation, to express their endorsement of the adopted resolutions," the Workers' Central Union of Cuba was quoted as saying in the official daily Granma. Read More

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Cuban Sprinter Robles Says He s Ready to Compete

<p style="text-align: justify;">Cuban Dayron Robles, who holds the world record for the 110-meter hurdles, said he is ready to return to the track after two months of rest due to injury.Robles told the Cuban press that he no longer has ankle or lower back discomfort after a rigorous strengthening program. Read More

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Cuba to Host Women’s Epee Grand Prix in May

<p style="text-align: justify;">2011.04.25 - 12:29:51 / radiorebelde.icrt.cu. HAVANA, Cuba. - More than 50 epee fencers from 20 countries will participate in the Epee Grand Prix for Women scheduled for Havana’s Pabexpo Exhibition Hall on May 21-22.Epee specialists from Russia, France, Japan, Switzerland, Austria, Azerbaijan, China, the Dominican Republic, Hungary, Israel, Estonia, Holland, Panama, Poland, Sweden, Chinese Taipei, the United States, Venezuela, Tunisia and Cuba will be competing in the contest that will also serve the local fencers as preparation for next October’s Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. Read More

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