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Archive - Aug 8, 2011

Chavez satisfied with latest medical tests

<p style="text-align: justify;">Aug 8, 2011 11:12am. CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez said Monday he's satisfied with results of a series of new medical examinations in Cuba, where he is undergoing treatment for cancer."Everything went well," Chavez said of tests results to examine the functioning of organs including his kidneys, liver and heart." The tests were conducted on Sunday and Monday, Chavez said. Read More

Cuba, Angola boost military ties

<p style="text-align: justify;">AFP. Long-standing allies Cuba and Angola have boosted military cooperation during a visit to the communist-run Caribbean island by Angolan defense officials, Cuban state media reported Monday.Cuban Defense Minister Julio Casas Regueiro met with his Angolan counterpart Candido Pereira Dos Santos Van Dunem and "signed an accord recognizing the working parameters to strengthen and grow cooperation between the two armies," the newspaper Granma said, citing an official statement. Read More

Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad tackles perilous Straits of Florida at 61

<p style="text-align: justify;">Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad has plunged into the Straits of Florida for the start of what she hopes will be a world record 103-mile swim from Cuba to Florida.7:00AM BST 08 Aug 2011. She will be accompanied on the 60-hour journey by a 45-member support team.`I'm standing here in the prime of my life,'' she said before jumping into the sea. ``Now I look out at a dead, flat calm, so I think this is my day.'' Read More

Where Cubans Can Meet the Beatles at Last

<p style="text-align: justify;">HAVANA — The hair and accents were wrong, but the audience cared about just one thing: the house band was singing the Beatles, here, in a new bar called the Yellow Submarine, in Cuba. People gather outside the Yellow Submarine in Havana.Better yet, perhaps because of that history, the band played like rebels. Fast and raw, they zipped up and down the bass lines of “Dear Prudence” as if the song were new. hey raced through “Rocky Raccoon,” and when they reached the opening words of “Let It Be” — “When I find myself in times of trouble” — the entire crowd began singing along, swaying, staring at the band or belting out the chorus with their eyes closed in rapture. Read More

Cuba ‘working to ease migration regulations’

<p style="text-align: justify;">Sunday, August 07, 2011. HAVANA, Cuba (CMC) – The Cuban government is working to relax migration policies on Cubans abroad who want to travel back to the island and those at home who want to travel abroad, Cuban president Raúl Castro has said.Castro’s comments to parliament, reported in the state news media, have sparked interest among nationals who have long demanded the right to travel abroad without the need for obtaining a government “exit permit”. Read More

Nyad: Today's swim shows 60s 'not too late' for goals

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Matt Sloane, CNN. August 7, 2011 10:07 p.m. EDT. Editor's note: CNN alone will be in the support boats with Diana Nyad on her attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida. (CNN) -- Diana Nyad's personal test has begun. At 7:45 p.m. ET she jumped into the water and began her 103-mile swim between Cuba and Florida."I'm almost 62 years old and I'm standing here at the prime of my life," she said as she walked toward the sea. "I think this is the prime. When one reaches this age, you still have a body that's strong but now you have a better mind." Read More

Rawlings praises Cuba for new bio-friendly malaria eradication project in Ghana

<p style="text-align: justify;">jjrawlings.wordpress.com. General News. Ambassador Cruz explains a point to President and Mrs Rawlings. By: Bismark Omari Somuah. Ghana's former President, Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, on Friday praised Cuba for the role it is playing in the eradication of malaria in Ghana and the West Africa region.Speaking at a meeting with the outgoing Cuban ambassador to Ghana, Dr Miguel Perez Cruz, President Rawlings said Ghana “owes Cuba a debt of gratitude” for the revolutionary new bio-spraying mechanism that eliminates mosquito larvae. Read More

U.S. company suspends Cuba tours

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Juan Tamayo.ElNuevoHerald.com. One of the first travel companies to jump into the Cuba trips allowed by a new Obama administration policy has suspended the tours amid questions that trouble both opponents and supporters of increased travel to the island.The luxury travel firm Abercrombie &amp; Kent advertised its tours for non-Cuban Americans, which included salsa dancing and rum-laced mojitos, under the “people to people” travel policy unveiled Jan. 28. It quickly sold out 13 tours organized in conjunction with the Foundation for Caribbean Studies, holder of one of the licenses to organize people to people trips issued by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC). Read More

American to attempt 60-hour Cuba-to-Florida swim

<p style="text-align: justify;">By Jeff Franks. HAVANA (Reuters) - Veteran long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad will take on time and Mother Nature when she jumps into the Florida Straits on Sunday to begin what would be a world record swim from Cuba to Florida. The 61-year-old American tried the grueling 103-mile journey in 1978 when she was 28, but failed in the face of winds and eight-foot (2.5-meter) waves that weather forecasters say should not be a factor this time. Nyad was scheduled to leave from Havana on Sunday evening, when the sea was expected to be smooth and windless, with hopes of getting to Key West in about 60 hours. Read More

Cuba opening to private enterprise spurs service sector start-ups

<p style="text-align: justify;">President Raul Castro has ordered a long list of reforms, and Cuba has embarked on a far-reaching experiment to salvage its depleted and, until now, tightly regulated Marxist economy. By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times. August 6, 2011, 5:01 p.m. Reporting from Havana. They began with a hose and a few rags when Amilcar Santa Cruz and his 30 siblings and cousins set up a carwash in Havana's Miramar district, a little family business to help make ends meet. And that's all it was for several years.But in the last few months, the business has exploded. The carwash today is a bustling piece of new Cuban enterprise. Read More