Brazilian Religious Leaders Back Dilma Rousseff

<p style="text-align: justify;">Over 170 Catholic and evangelic leaders in Brazil have signed a manifesto declaring their support for the presidential candidate of the ruling Workers'' Party (PT), Dilma Rousseff. The manifesto, "Manifesto of Catholic and Evangelical Christians for Life and Life in Abundance!" was published in Carta Mayor, with the religious leaders affirming that they reject the use of religion to condemn any candidature. Read More

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OPEC Backs Yasuní ITT, Prepares Summit in Quito

<p style="text-align: justify;">The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced on Friday its backing of the Yasuni ITT initiative, which looks for economic compensation from the international community in exchange for not exploiting 850 million barrels of crude in the Amazonia. Read More

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Cuban Provinces in Recovery after Storm

<p style="text-align: justify;">The city of Havana and the provinces of La Habana and Matanzas, and coastal municipalities in Pinar del Rio, have vigorously began recovery efforts in the wake of the passage of tropical storm Paula.&nbsp; According to a note from the General Staff of the Civil Defense, there were no fatalities and crews from the utility sector are working hard to re-establish basic services to the population. Read More

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Havana Celebrates World Food Day

<p style="text-align: justify;">2010.10.16 - 12:02:29 / [email protected]. Havana Celebrates World Food Day. HAVANA, Cuba.- The Cuban capital is celebrating on Saturday World Food Day, with activities in its 15 municipalities. The program includes community experiences, by way of educational and cultural festivals, in which culinary experts, gastronomy and Agriculture Ministry workers and health representatives participate. Read More

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ST. AUGUSTINE TIMES (letter): Rubio's election could block trade with Cuba

<p style="text-align: justify;">St. Augustine. Editor: Marco Rubio portrays himself in his campaign commercials as a son of Cuban exiles. The Cuban exiles have an obsession with Fidel Castro to the extent that they are hurting their own people, the real Cubans who still live in Cuba,by blocking free trade with Cuba. If our Congress would permit free trade and American investment in Cuba, it would improve the Cuban economy and create jobs both in Cuba and here in the United States. But our Congress is afraid of the Cuban exiles lobby and losing their vote. Read More

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When Cuba Invaded America

<p style="text-align: justify;">OCTOBER 16, 2010.Cuba once had an outsize cultural influence on the U.S., shaping American tastes in music, movies, drinks and providing the buttoned-down citizenry an enticing notion of how to get away from it all—even though getting away often involved no more than stepping into a Havana-themed nightclub in New York. As Cuban-American poet and professor Gustavo Pérez Firmat notes in "The Havana Habit," Cuba beckoned in part because it was eminently exotic and nearly next door. Read More

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Azerbaijan, Cuba sign computer deal

<p style="text-align: justify;">October 14, 2010. A cooperation agreement in the field of information and communication technologies was signed this week in Havana between Ali Abbasov, Azerbaijan's minister of ICT, and his Cuban counterpart, Ramiro Valdés Menéndez. According to the Azeri newspaper Cyerkalo, Abbasov also met with Vice President Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz to discuss the production in Cuba of Azeri computers, for distribution and sale in Latin America. Abbasov donated to Cuba 30 of the latest<br> models, the Cuban daily Granma reported. Read More

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Nyad scrubs Cuba-Florida swim bid due to weather

<p style="text-align: justify;">Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:09pm EDT. MIAMI (Reuters) - Veteran long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad said on Friday she was scrubbing plans to make a treacherous swim this year of more than 100 miles from Cuba to Key West, Florida, due to bad weather. Nyad, 61, emerged from long retirement as an athlete earlier this year to say she was determined to make the swim she failed to complete in her first attempt in August 1978, when bad weather was also the culprit. Read More

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S. American Tourism to Cuba on the Rise

<p style="text-align: justify;">The wave of South American visitors to Cuba increased by 12 percent in the first nine months of this year, according to Luis Felipe Aguilera, from the Cuban Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR). Aguilera, who is Director of the Information and Promotion Department for South America, told Prensa Latina that his forecast is to close the year with over 115,000 South American visitors, a significant increase of over 25 percent compared to last year, when at least 85,000 travellers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay visited the Island. Read More

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Cuba-Venezuela cable could finally open up in July 2011

<p style="text-align: justify;">October 15, 2010 — 11:05am ET. Carriers that want to penetrate the relatively untapped Cuban telecom market will have to wait a little bit longer as an submarine cable network linking Venezuela to Cuba won't go into operation until possibly July 2011. While not revealing where they are at in the network construction process Alberto Rodriguez, Cuba's vice minister of information and communications, said in Cuban Communist Party-backed newspaper Granma that the new cable would take ten months to build the 5,000 km cable. Read More

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