Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
People in Havana more concerned about buying chicken suspect little will change with Raúl’s departure
News travels swiftly through Havana, bumping against people so they turn, then rolling on. Cubans have a phrase for it: la bola en la calle, the ball in the street.
His retirement means that Cubans will not have a Castro formally guiding their affairs for the first time in over six decades
Raúl Castro has confirmed that he is resigning as head of Cuba’s Communist party, ending an era of formal leadership by him and his brother Fidel Castro that began with the 1959 revolution.
The 89-year-old Castro made the announcement on Friday in a speech at the opening of the eighth congress of the ruling party – the only one allowed on the island.
Public radio station blames technical glitch for publishing premature death notices online
Reports of the deaths of about 100 unfortunate celebrities have been greatly exaggerated by a French public radio station, which mistakenly published the obituaries of, among others, a very-much-alive Queen, Brigitte Bardot and Pelé.
Radio France Internationale (RFI), the French equivalent of the BBC World Service, on Monday blamed “a technical problem” and apologised for the error, which saw the death notices appear on its website and partner platforms including Google, Yahoo! and MSN before being hastily taken down.
Mariela Castro and state media journalists were also blocked in move Cuban Union of Journalists called ‘massive censorship’
Twitter has blocked the accounts of the Cuban Communist party leader Raúl Castro, his daughter Mariela Castro and Cuba’s top state-run media outlets, a move the Cuban Union of Journalists denounced as “massive censorship”.
Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez will embark on the first official bilateral visit by a Spanish leader to Cuba in 32 years on Thursday, at a time when the Communist-run island is looking towards Europe as its ties with the United States fester. Sanchez, who is traveling with two senior ministers and executives from two dozen companies, aims to deepen strong commercial relations and bring political ones up to par with them, according to his government.
The passenger plane, on a domestic flight to Holguin in eastern Cuba, crashed at 12:08 p.m. . There were 105 passengers on board, including five children, plus crew members, state media reported.
Firefighters work at the wreckage site of a Boeing 737 plane that crashed in the agricultural area of Boyeros, around 20 km south of Havana, shortly after taking off from Havana's main airport in Cuba, on May 18, 2018. - Reuters Firefighters work at the wreckage site of a Boeing 737 plane that crashed in the agricultural area of Boyeros, around 20 km south of Havana, shortly after taking off from Havana's main airport in Cuba, on May 18, 2018.
If you don't want to believe us when we say the appointment of Miguel Diaz-Canel as "president" of Cuba is purely kabuki theater and the Castro family dictatorship will remain in total control of Cuba, perhaps you will believe the Diaz-Canel himself. "I confirm to this assembly that Raul Castro, as first secretary of the Communist Party, will lead the decisions about the future of the country.
In his first hour as Cuba's new head of state, Miguel Diaz-Canel made clear that while Raul Castro is no longer president, the longtime Communist leader is still the power to be reckoned with in this island nation. "Raul ... will be key to the process of making the most important decisions on the future of the nation," Diaz-Canel, 57, said Thursday on the floor of Cuba's National Assembly after he was formally named the country's new head of state.
Raul Castro turned over Cuba's presidency Thursday to a 57-year-old successor he said would hold power until 2031, a plan that would place the state the Castro brothers founded and ruled for 60 years in the hands of a Communist Party official little known to most on the island. Castro's 90-minute valedictory speech offered his first clear vision for the nation's future power str... Outgoing President Raul Castro raises his arms in celebration after Miguel Diaz-Canel was elected as the island nation's new president, at the National Assembly in Havana, Cuba.
In this Jan. 25, 2018 file photo, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks with reporters as he leaves the office of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is moderating bipartisan negotiations on immigration, at the Capitol in Washington. When presidents gather on April 13, in Peru at the Summit of the Americas, they may be tempted to walk past Vice President Mike Pence and make a beeline for the person who has President Donald Trump's ear on Latin America: Sen. Marco Rubio.
For the first time in decades, the man at the head of Cuba's government will not be named Castro. The island's National Assembly is meeting Wednesday to vote on a replacement for Raul Castro, the brother of the longtime Cuban leader who took over for him in 2006 as he suffered ill health.
In 2008 Raul Castro took over a country where most people couldn't own computers or cellphones, leave without permission, run most types of private businesses or enter resort hotels. Castro set about re-engineering the system he had helped create and Cuba opened dramatically over his decade in office.
Cuba, once bustling with heavy-spending Americans, sees steep decline in U.S. travelers Despite modest tweaking of U.S.-Cuba policy, U.S. travel to Cuba has dropped off significantly Check out this story on northjersey.com: https://usat.ly/2GDXXzX U.S. cruise ships still call on Cuban ports and U.S. airlines, such as American and Southwest, still list Havana and Camaguey as destinations. But Cuba - not long ago bustling with good-tipping, heavy-spending Americans - is experiencing a steep decline in U.S. travelers.
Last Sunday another Castro electoral farce was held in which voters were summoned to "vote" for candidates for deputies to the National Assembly of Popular Power - candidates appointed by the Government-Party-State. In Cuba, where there is no freedom of expression, association, election or economic activity, the 605 candidates appointed by the central power to form part of the Parliament were declared deputies.
The reform measures implemented in Cuba in 2008 failed: voluntarism, statism, centralized planning, and subordination to policy and ideology dashed them. The coexistence of two currencies confirms this.
Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., left, and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., confer as the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere examines attacks on American diplomats in Havana, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018. WASHINGTON - The United States stood behind its assertion that U.S. personnel in Cuba were deliberately attacked and raised the possibility Tuesday that a virus was used, as lawmakers and even the FBI challenged the initial theory of "sonic attacks."
Cuban President Raul Castro and the head of Russian oil company Rosneft met in Havana on Saturday, the latest sign the two countries are readying a major energy agreement. State-controlled media on Sunday ran a photograph of Castro and Igor Sechin sitting with notebooks at a table with Economy Minister Ricardo Cabrisas, after the latter two had held what was termed in a brief caption "a working meeting".
Cuban President Raul Castro met with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Friday amid hopes the communist-run island might be able to persuade its Asian ally to avert a showdown with the United States. North Korea is facing unprecedented pressure from the United States and the international community to cease its nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Americans seeking to visit Cuba must navigate a complicated maze of travel, commerce and financial restrictions unveiled Wednesday by the Trump administration, part of a new policy to further isolate the island's communist government. Now off-limits to U.S. citizens are dozens of Cuban hotels, shops, tour companies and other businesses included on a lengthy American blacklist of entities that have links to Cuba's military, intelligence or security services.