World English News » Cuba

Blogger can’t come to U.S. for prize

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:55:38 +0000

[Miami Herald]– A Cuban blogger who has become an international sensation for offering frank criticism of her country’s communist system said she was denied government permission Monday to travel to New York to receive a top journalism prize.

Yoani Sanchez had hoped to go to Columbia University for a ceremony Wednesday to receive her Maria Moors Cabot Prize, the oldest international award in journalism. “Immigration just confirmed that I remain prohibited from leaving the country,” she posted on her “Generation Y” blog.

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Cserlajos at en.wikipedia

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Cuba’s lauded healthcare system is a hoax

admin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:57:27 +0000

[Miami Herald]– Teresita died on my birthday almost five years ago. I didn’t grow up with my older cousin — she stayed behind in Havana after the revolution and my father, her uncle, was wise enough to leave.

But when I met Teresita and her son and daughter during a month long reporting trip to Cuba in 2002 it was an instant connection. The grainy black-and-white photos of a beautiful teenage Teresita at my baptism, with her long black locks and beaming smile, came to life in the color of five decades of regrets.

What if she had left when my parents started making arrangements to bring her to Miami, instead of falling in love, at 18, and deciding to marry and stay? Why did she wait too long to leave during the Mariel boatlift? Why didn’t we keep in touch all those decades?

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President meets Fidel Castro, top Cuba leaders

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:50:05 +0000

[Vietnam News]– President Nguyen Minh Triet affirmed the continued friendship, support and solidarity by the Party, State and people of Viet Nam for their Cuban counterparts during a courtesy call on former Cuban President Fidel Castro on Monday.

Triet said he believed that the Cuban people, under the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party, comrade Fidel Castro and President Raul Castro, would overcome all challenges and gain new achievements during the development of socialism in Cuba, which would contribute to the struggle for protecting independence and sovereignty of the people in Latin American countries and the world at large.

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Ricardo Stuckert/ABr

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‘Old friends’ Cuba, China strengthen ties

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:02:32 +0000

Why is the world’s third-largest economy spending hundreds of millions of dollars in Cuba, an impoverished island with few natural resources and a history of making things difficult for foreign investors?

The answer is simple: China is the world’s third-largest economy.

A series of deals from Beijing to Havana are partly in line with Chinese economic expansion across the world — trade between China and Latin America grew from $10 billion in 2000 to $140 billion in 2008 — but there’s also a nuanced political bond between the two that seems to go beyond cash.

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Agência Brasil

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Obama extends Cuba embargo 1 year

admin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:17:54 +0000

President Barack Obama has extended the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba for one year, the White House said in a statement released on Monday.

The extension was expected and has been the practice of all U.S. presidents dating to the 1970s under a section of the so-called “Trading With the Enemy Act.”

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Fidel Castro’s new `tropical business casual’ look is a signal — but of what?

admin — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:51:14 +0000

What does it mean when Fidel Castro, known for carefully managing his image, appears in recent photos wearing not his usual track suits but shirts that one observer called “tropical business casual.”

Perhaps nothing, Cuba analysts say. But perhaps, they add almost in the same breath, Castro is signaling that he’s done rehabilitating from his health crisis and is ready to wield more influence over Cuba affairs.

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Cuban government reduces prices on 24 basic goods

admin — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:44:08 +0000

The Cuban government is implementing a price reduction of up to 20 percent on 24 basic goods sold at foreign-currency stores, including food products like ground meat, chicken and canned milk, as well as soap and toothpaste.

According to documents obtained by El Nuevo Herald, last Wednesday trade officials began implementing “centralized discounts” from five to 27 cents per CCP (Convertible Cuban Peso) on most items. The markdown could be as high as 2.85 CCP on some products and brands.

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James Emery

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