Cuba

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Castro Makes Rare Public Appearance

Cuban leader 'thin' but 'looks good'

(Newser) - New photographs of a smiling, tracksuit-clad Fidel Castro greeting workers at a scientific think tank were posted on the blogs of two Cuban journalists and a media website yesterday, offering a rare glimpse of the reclusive revolutionary leader in a public forum. Castro, 83, appears slightly stooped but otherwise healthy...

Cuba to Free 52 Dissidents
 Cuba to Free 52 Dissidents 

Cuba to Free 52 Dissidents

Decision could save life of man on hunger strike

(Newser) - Cuba has promised to release 52 political prisoners, after one of them went on an attention-grabbing hunger strike. Guillermo Fariñas, a 48-year-old psychologist and journalist, has been hospitalized thanks to his hunger strike, which he began back in February, after a previous hunger striker starved to death. Spanish foreign...

Cuba Denounces Arizona Immigration Law

Reminding us that the state itself was 'stolen from the noble Mexican people'

(Newser) - Cuba is getting in on the outrage over Arizona's illegal immigration crackdown. A declaration from the Cuban Parliament today declared solidarity with “those who're facing the brutal violation of their human rights” at the hands of “a law of deep racist and xenophobic nature,” according to the...

Oil Spill Brings US, Cuba Together
Oil Spill Brings US, Cuba Together

Oil Spill Brings US, Cuba Together

Good thing, writes analyst: Havana is looking for wells, too

(Newser) - As the oil spill spreads toward Florida and Cuba, the State Department has begun briefing Havana on efforts to control it. "We also communicated US desire to maintain a clear line of communication with the Cuban government on developments,” one official tells ABC . The rare talks between diplomatic...

Fla. Tar Balls Not From Spill, but Oil Heading That Way

Loop Current will take it up the Florida coast in about a week

(Newser) - Good news: The tar balls found on the beaches of Florida are not a result of the Gulf oil spill, authorities have proven. Bad news: It's only a matter of days before the oil hits for real. The spill has reached the Loop Current, the Miami Herald reports, which will...

Cuba Liberates Its Hair Salons
 Cuba Liberates Its Hair Salons 

Cuba Liberates Its Hair Salons

Lucky barbers and beauticians will be able to work for themselves

(Newser) - Raul Castro has decided to get the Cuban government out of its citizens' hair. Barber shops and beauty salons with three or fewer seats will now be allowed to be owner-operated rather than run by the state. Cuba-watchers see the tentative loosening as the start of a long-anticipated—or at...

Cuba Releases Photos of Elian Gonzales, 16

As a boy in the US, he set off a furor over immigration

(Newser) - Cuba has released photos of one-time exile cause célèbre Elian Gonzalez wearing an olive-green military school uniform and attending a Young Communist Union congress. Gonzalez, now 16 with closely cropped black hair, is shown serious-faced with fellow youth delegates during last weekend's congress in Havana. The images were...

Fidel Castro Again Calling the Shots
 Fidel Castro Again 
 Calling the Shots 
analysis

Fidel Castro Again Calling the Shots

He's been gradually reasserting his authority in the last year

(Newser) - Fidel Castro may have turned over the presidency to his brother when he was seriously ill, but he's been gradually regaining his health and reasserting his authority in Cuba over the past year, writes Arian Camp-Flores. The Newsweek writer talks to several Havana experts who see unmistakable signs that Fidel...

Cuba Doesn't Belong on New Screening List
Cuba Doesn't Belong on New Screening List
EUGENE ROBINSON

Cuba Doesn't Belong on New Screening List

Al-Qaeda in Havana? This is just a 'big waste of time'

(Newser) - The terrorist threat from Cuba “can be measured at precisely zero,” Eugene Robinson writes, so why did it make the list of nations whose residents will get extra screening at airports? The answer is simple, and ridiculous: The US persists in considering Cuba a “state sponsor of...

All Flyers From 14 Nations to Be Patted Down
All Flyers From 14 Nations
to Be Patted Down
UPDATED

All Flyers From 14 Nations to Be Patted Down

Tough new air security crackdown begins today

(Newser) - In the toughest new airline security rules in history, all US-bound passengers from 14 nations considered state sponsors of terrorism or "countries of interest" will be patted down, and their carry-on baggage will be searched. The new rules will apply beginning today to travelers from Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iran,...

Hey, Obama: Embrace the Dissidents
 Hey, Obama: 
 Embrace the 
 Dissidents 
opinion

Hey, Obama: Embrace the Dissidents

Obama risks repeating Gerald Ford's big mistake

(Newser) - How can Barack Obama give voice to the voiceless? With a simple photo op, writes William McGurn in the Wall Street Journal . Dissidents under “nasty” governments in China, Iran, Cuba, and elsewhere—thus far dissed by the White House—are wondering: “‘Where is the president of the...

Obama's Overseas To-Do List for 2010
 Obama's Overseas 
 To-Do List for 2010 
ANALYSIS

Obama's Overseas To-Do List for 2010

Afghanistan, Iran top list that domestic politics could kill anyway

(Newser) - As President Obama noted in his Nobel speech, it’s a scary world out there, and Kevin Whitelaw takes a look at some of the things on his foreign-policy to-do list in 2010:
  • Pacify Afghanistan to some extent: Now that it’s “undeniably Obama’s war,” Whitelaw writes
...

Castro: Obama's Out to Destabilize Cuba
 Castro: Obama's Out 
 to Destabilize Cuba 
HONEYMOON'S OVER

Castro: Obama's Out to Destabilize Cuba

Cuban prez slams US over arrested contractor

(Newser) - Raul Castro signaled that his honeymoon with the Obama administration is over in an angry speech yesterday accusing the US of stepping up its effort to topple the country's Communist government. "The enemy is as active as always," said Castro, pointing to the Cuba's recent detention of an...

Cuba Detains US Contractor Distributing Laptops

It's unclear what he's been charged with

(Newser) - Cuba has arrested a US government contract worker who was distributing laptops and cell phones in the country. The man works for a company in Bethesda, Md., that does work for various development agencies. It's not clear what he's been charged with—cell phones and laptops are legal, if rare,...

Obama to Cuban Blogger: Next Move Is Castro's

President sidesteps question on Castro government's legitimacy

(Newser) - Prominent Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez emailed a list of questions to President Obama, and in an unusual move, he responded. Obama's answers, which Sánchez posted today, largely reiterate his stated positions on Cuba. But he also indicates he has no interest in "talking for the sake of...

Watchdog: Raúl Just as Bad as Fidel

He shares his brother's disregard for human rights

(Newser) - The perception that Cuba is less repressive under Raúl Castro than Fidel is false, Human Rights Watch says. Dissidents are still harassed by the state, subject to arbitrary detention—532 such cases in the first half of 2009 alone—fired. or denied work. The government also continues to pressure...

Castro Sister: I Worked With CIA

New book reveals Juanita Castro's involvement with US intelligence

(Newser) - The sister of Fidel and Raúl Castro worked with the CIA in the 1960s, while the agency was planning to assassinate Fidel and overthrow the revolutionary government. In a new book, Juanita Castro, who now lives in Miami, reveals that she hid opponents of her brothers' regime in her...

Fugitive in '68 Hijack Nabbed at JFK

After 41 years in Cuba, alleged hijacker could face life in prison

(Newser) - A longtime fugitive who allegedly hijacked a plane in 1968 and diverted it to Cuba was arrested yesterday at JFK Airport in New York and will be arraigned tomorrow. Luis Armando Pena Soltren, now 66, is accused of smuggling weapons inside a diaper bag and terrorizing dozens of passengers 41...

Travel to Cuba Soars Under Obama

State Department relaxes interpretation of the law

(Newser) - Travel between the US and Cuba has soared this year, thanks to the Obama administration. The president hasn’t officially changed any policies regarding Cuba, but permission to travel in or out is suddenly a lot easier to come by, applicants tell the Miami Herald. Joan Brown Campbell, Elian Gonzalez’...

Early Castro Compatriot Almeida Dead at 82

Rebel leader coined revolutionary slogan 'Here, nobody surrenders!'

(Newser) - One of the original leaders of the Cuban Revolution and a general in Fidel Castro’s military has died, the BBC reports. Juan Almeida Bosque, 82, was the third most senior member in Raul Castro’s Council of State and the only black member of the Cuban leadership. Almeida met...

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