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Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Rene Lecour's plan started out simple: Take his son on a skateboarding trip to someplace "epic."

While he and his son, Kaya, were searching the internet, they saw videos of Cuba's skateboarders making do with beaten-up and jerry-rigged boards.

The government in Cuba has removed its monthly allocation of soap and detergents from the heavily subsidised ration card.

MIAMI – They hold court in the back of the Versailles restaurant in Miami's Little Havana, a group of old Cuban men whose raspy, impassioned voices fill the room.

It remains unclear whether Cuba's fledgling private sector will take off or stagnate in 2011

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba began the process of laying off thousands of workers on Tuesday, according to a top union official, as one of President Raul Castro's central reforms to the communist island's economy picked up steam.

HAVANA – Cuba's foreign minister said Wednesday that President Barack Obama has missed a golden opportunity to improve relations, lamenting that nearly two years after he offered an olive branch to America's traditional foes, the U.S. leader has "not lived up to expectations."

As part of its strategy to develop and broaden its economy, Cuba is openly seeking foreign investment for tourism projects with a particular emphasis on marinas and golf courses.

    Havana, Cuba (CNN) -While the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has sparked debate in America on the merits of deepwater drilling, 90 miles away

Reporting and writing on Cuba under the Castro brothers is like The Perils of Pauline. Dangers abound. Make a mistake, and the train might run you over. The basic challenge is that information is often unreliable and sources are hard to find. In the past two weeks, the damsel in distress has been Juan Tamayo, who, if not quite grizzled, is about as veteran a reporter as you will find from the days when reporters were mostly scuffed-shoe males.

That yacht trip to Cuba just keeps coming back to haunt Democratic Senate hopeful Jeff Greene.  The much discussed trip didn't come up on This Week in South Florida Sunday morning. But it must have been in the back of viewers' minds when Greene said he has had a change of heart on his support of the Cuban trade embargo.

In his first official government act in four years, Fidel Castro only spoke for about 10 minutes to the Cuban Parliament Saturday, nowhere near the hours-long orations that marked nearly 50 years of the revolutionary leader's presidency.

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Ariel Sigler is the latest of 21 Cuban political prisoners to fly into exile after being freed from jail in Cuba.  Gaunt, and confined to a wheelchair, the former boxer received a hero's welcome in Miami.

HAVANA (AFP) – Cuba has begun releasing a group of ailing political prisoners as part of a landmark church-brokered deal to free 52 dissidents, relatives of three freed inmates have told AFP.

Cuba has agreed to release 52 political prisoners, including five dissidents to be freed within hours Wednesday, after breakthrough talks led by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.

HAVANA – Spain hopes Cuba's agreement with Roman Catholic leaders that led to the release of one political prisoner for health reasons and transfers to jails closer to home for a dozen others is just the beginning, the Spanish foreign minister said Tuesday.

HAVANA – Local leaders of Cuba's Communist Party want to expel a prominent academic for an article decrying widespread corruption, but lower-ranking members have rejected the order pending an appeal, according to an associate of the writer.

Spain's foreign minister plans to increase pressure on Cuba to release political prisoners.  Miguel Angel Moratinos said he was going to Havana to support negotiations between the Catholic Church and Cuba's communist authorities.

The number of political prisoners in Cuba has dropped to 167, the lowest total since the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power, a human rights group said Monday.

HAVANA – Cuba's state-run media said Saturday that an opposition activist who has refused food and water for 129 days has actually gained weight due to intravenous feeding, but that he has suffered a blood clot that left him "in danger of potential death."

Cuba's government continues to stifle dissent through arbitrary arrests, surveillance, intimidation and harassment of journalists, dissidents and activists, despite recent assertions that freedom of expression is respected inside Cuba, Amnesty International said in a new report released today.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A congressional panel is poised to take the first step toward ending a decades-old U.S. ban on travel to Cuba and removing other hurdles to food sales to the Caribbean island, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday.

HAVANA (AP) -- Cuba has distributed nearly 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) of unused state land to private farmers and others trying their hand at farming, more than half the territory it hopes to give out in an effort to revitalize an agriculture sector hampered by decades of government mismanagement.

HAVANA (AP) — The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was bound for eastern Cuba on Wednesday to consult with local Roman Catholic priests and pay a visit to the island's patron saint.

HAVANA—A Cuban court found prominent opposition leader Darsy Ferrer guilty of purchasing black-market cement Tuesday, but he was released on time served since it took nearly a year for his case to go to trial.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States Wednesday called the release of jailed dissident physician Darsi Ferrer in Cuba a "positive development," and called on Havana to take more steps toward full respect of human rights.

HAVANA — Cuba’s Roman Catholic leadership hopes Pope Benedict XVI can visit in 2012, a bishop said Thursday, in what would be the first papal trip to Cuba since John Paul II came in 1998.

OFFICIAL STATE DEPARTMENT PRESS RELEASE-On Friday, June 18, 2010, the United States and Cuba met in Washington, D.C. to discuss the implementation of the U.S.-Cuba Migration Accords. This was the third such meeting since the decision to resume the Cuba Migration Talks in 2009. In the course of the meeting, the U.S. team, led by Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Craig Kelly, reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to promote safe, legal, and orderly migration. The Cuban delegation was led by Vice Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodriguez Barrera.

Washington (CNN) -- The United States and Cuba wrapped up a third round of migrations talks Friday, though the two nations apparently didn't reach a resolution over an American contractor in Cuban custody.

HAVANA --Cuba and a top Vatican official expressed optimism Wednesday that landmark negotiations between the church and Raul Castro's government will continue and indicated they could produce more breakthroughs on the treatment of dissidents and political prisoners.

HAVANA (Reuters) – A U.S. contractor jailed in Cuba since December on suspicion of espionage activities has committed "serious crimes" but remains under investigation, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said on Wednesday.

PEDRO BETANCOURT, Cuba – Cuba on Saturday freed a political prisoner who is confined to a wheelchair and began transferring six others to jails closer to their homes, part of a deal with the Roman Catholic Church and the most important sign yet that the government may be softening its hardline stance on organized dissent.

 The United States and Cuba have agreed to hold immigration talks in Washington within days, a U.S. official said Saturday, the first since a similar meeting in Havana in February.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Monday welcomed Cuba's release of a paraplegic political prisoner, Ariel Sigler, but urged Havana to release all such detainees in the Americas' sole one-party communist regime.

In the past year, our nation tackled some incredibly challenging issues, including healthcare and financial reform. Today, the debate marches on in Washington over immigration -- a hot-button issue that becomes even more contentious during this mid-term election season.

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- At a privately run farm west of Havana, Cuban farmer Jesus Rodriguez is looking for some changes.  Watch CNN video:  http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/05/31/cuba.farms/index.html?section=cnn_latest  

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- It's no longer just doctors, nurses and teachers. Cuba now sends Venezuela troops to train its military, and computer experts to work on its passport and identification-card systems.

Dissidents and relatives of Cuban political prisoners said Monday that they've seen no improvement in conditions for inmates despite an apparent government agreement to improve life behind bars for the island's 200 political prisoners.

HAVANA (Reuters) – The Cuban government has not yet improved conditions for political prisoners or released any as had been hoped after recent talks between Catholic Church leaders and President Raul Castro, Cuba's "Ladies in White" dissident group said Sunday.

HAVANA (AFP) – Cuba's government will begin moving political prisoners to jails in their home provinces and provide the sickest inmates with hospital treatment, a dissident on a three-month hunger strike said.

HAVANA, Cuba -- A cell phone is a handy device on this underwired island -- just not for making phone calls.

HAVANA (Reuters) – The Cuban government has begun renting its smaller city buses in Havana to the bus drivers in another minor move under President Raul Castro to ease the state's hand in Cuba's socialist economy.

HAVANA (Reuters) – It's almost midnight at a roadside bar on the outskirts of Havana and young Cubans gather to listen to hip hop.  A man with dreadlocks steps up, microphone in hand, to the roar of approval from a crowd of 150 fans.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba's private farmers will purchase supplies directly in future instead of having them allocated by the state, the government said on Sunday, in the latest concession to their demands for more autonomy.

HAVANA, May 15 (UPI) -- A prominent Cuban human-rights activist says she hopes a court ruling freeing her from prison is a sign that repression in Cuba is on the wane.

"Oscar's Cuba" is the story of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a political prisoner who has been called Fidel Castro's number one enemy; the man the Castro brothers fear most.

HAVANA (AFP) – Cuba approved a new property law aimed at attracting foreign investment in tourism projects like marinas and golf courses, including from the United States if Washington reverses its embargo on the island.

 It is our opinion that the recently released Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff report on Radio and Television Marti,  reflects an effort to advance an argument that will result in the eventual  elimination of all broadcasting to Cuba rather than to “ensure the survivability of Radio and TV Marti” as its title states.   

HAVANA – President Raul Castro has fired Cuba's transportation minister for professional mistakes and replaced the head of the Sugar Ministry after he admitted incompetence, the latest in a growing series of leadership shake-ups.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US government-backed radio and television broadcasts into Cuba reach a tiny audience there and suffer from poor editorial standards, a US Senate Committee said in a scathing report released Monday.

HAVANA, May 4 (AFP) - Cuba's underground hip hop duo "Los Aldeanos" are boldly grooving where no Cuban has gone in five decades: criticizing the communist government loud and proud for the first time to a sell-out crowd.

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba allowed a small group of dissidents to hold a protest march on Sunday after the country's top Roman Catholic clergyman negotiated with authorities, ending three straight weeks...

HAVANA (AFP) – Cuba challenged the United States Sunday to lift a decades-old trade embargo "even for a year" to test its contention that the island's leaders do not want the embargo lifted or normal relations with Washington.

HAVANA - A small group of carefully choreographed government supporters shouted down an even smaller contingent of wives and mothers of jailed opposition activists Sunday, preventing their traditional march for the third straight week in another ugly confrontation that may be becoming a Cuban weekend tradition.

MIAMI – When federal agents stormed a home in the Little Havana community, snatched Elian Gonzalez from his father's relatives and put him on a path back to his father in Cuba, thousands of Cuban-Americans took to Miami's streets. Their

(AFP) – Cuba and the United States have held a series of unprecedented talks to coordinate aid to earthquake-stricken Haiti but so far have failed to reach agreement, a top Cuban official said Wednesday.

HAVANA (Reuters) – The leader of Cuba's Catholic Church said Cubans were impatient for change to get the country out of what he called a "very difficult situation" in an unusually blunt interview published on Monday.

It was April 3, 1980, just days before the Mariel boatlift erupted, and senior Carter Administration officials were meeting to consider the turmoil lashing Cuba.

HAVANA – Cuban security agents denied the wives and mothers of jailed dissidents permission to hold their weekly march Sunday, setting off a long, strange standoff under the hot Caribbean sun that ended with the women being led away by officials.

First, welcome President Obama to the Magic City. South Florida is filled with people from all over the world -- many of them, like generations of Cuban exiles, arrived here seeking freedom.

El Gobierno de Cuba comenzó a entregar este mes la administración de cientos de pequeñas barberías y salones de belleza del Estado a los empleados, en lo que parece ser el inicio de una esperada reestructuración del sector minorista de servicios bajo el Gobierno del presidente Raúl Castro.

In a seemingly never ending cycle there are frequent announcements of remedies that will invigorate our economy. This time it is called, "Ending the inflated payrolls," although from the perspective of those who will be left without jobs it can be summarized in one word: unemployment

HAVANA -- Communist Cuba is turning over hundreds of state-run barbershops and beauty salons to employees across the country in what appears to be the start of a long-expected revamping of state retail services by President Raul Castro.

 Police broke up a weekly march by wives and mothers of imprisoned Cuban opposition leaders Sunday, forcing them onto a bus and driving them home as a pro-government crowd screamed insults.

The stunning figure was revealed by Cuban leader Raúl Castro himself: The Cuban government and its enterprises might have more than one million excess workers on their payrolls.

WASHINGTON -- Nowadays, most of those who die for a cause either perish for the wrong cause or in order to bring death to innocent people...But in a godforsaken corner of the Western hemisphere, as if taking it upon themselves to restore the old tradition of martyrdom, a group of people have decided to die for a cause and harm no one else in the process.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry has placed a hold on US funding for pro-democracy opposition activities in Cuba, the senator's office told AFP on Friday.

Thousands of protesters formed a river of white as they marched around a lake in a Los Angeles park Sunday, joining other marchers around the world to expose the plight of political dissidents in Cuba and support the wives, mothers, and other women who defend them.

MIAMI — A teary but smiling Gloria Estefan mounted the stage at the end of a march she spearheaded that drew tens of thousands of demonstrators in Miami's Little Havana to support Cuban dissidents Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama slammed Cuba for its continued political and human rights repression and called for an end to the Communist regime's "clenched fist" policy against its people.

(Jewish Times) Forty members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed a letter warning Cuba that improved relations are contingent on the release of a jailed Jewish American.

Recent events in Cuba, including the tragic death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the repression visited upon Las Damas de Blanco, and the intensified harassment of those who dare to give voice to the desires of their fellow Cubans, are deeply disturbing.

Cuban security forces and pro-government civilians violently broke up another protest march Wednesday by Ladies in White -- female relatives of political prisoners -- and dragged them away in buses. Ladies in White members in Havana said they were punched, pinched, scratched and had their hair pulled by the security agents and civilians, who also made rude gestures and swore at them.

(AP) STRASBOURG, France — The European Parliament  voted Thursday to condemn Cuba for the "avoidable  and cruel" death of a dissident hunger striker, prompting the communist regime to vow it will not bend to international pressure.

GDANSK, Poland (AFP) — Cuban dissident hunger striker Guillermo Farinas has asked Polish anti-communist icon Lech Walesa to lay a wreath on his grave when Cuba is free, the former Polish president told AFP.

(AP) GENEVA – A senior Google executive welcomed on Tuesday a U.S. decision to relax restrictions on exporting Internet communications services to Iran, Sudan and Cuba.

Dissidents are going on hunger strikes in Cuba after the death of a prisoner of conscience in an attempt to bring global attention to the oppression of the Castro regime, dissidents and rights groups say.

HAVANA (Reuters) – When Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died this week after an 85-day hunger strike, hopes for near-term improvement in U.S.-Cuba relations may have died with him, political experts said on Friday.

HAVANA – Cuba's opposition community pledged Thursday to seize upon the international outcry over a hunger-striking dissident's death in prison and increase pressure on the communist government to improve its human rights record.

These are days of profound reflection for the Cuban-American exile community. Two days ago the brave prisoner of conscience, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, died in Castro's notorious prisons, a victim of the regime's brutality and its disdain for human life.

HAVANA – The United States joined European nations in condemning Cuba's communist government over the death of a jailed dissident after a long hunger strike, saying on Wednesday that his case shines a spotlight on the island's incarceration of some 200 political prisoners.

HAVANA (AFP) – Police arrested dissidents across Cuba to prevent protests, following the death by self starvation of Orlando Zapata that has drawn international condemnation.

Orlando Zapata Tamayo was a simple man. A plumber and bricklayer, he was arrested by the Cuban regime in 2003 -- part of a sweep of 75 human rights activists, independent journalists and librarians pushing Cuba to follow the international declaration of human rights.

Miami, February 23, 2010.  Prisoner of conscience, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, one of the 75 prisoners of conscience imprisoned during the wave of arrests of Cuban dissidents in March of 2003, has died today in Havana. 

Amnesty International has urged Cuban President Raúl Castro to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience after a political activist died following a hunger strike.

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuba criticized U.S. diplomats Saturday for meeting with political opponents after bilateral talks on immigration in Havana, accusing the American diplomats of "promoting subversion."

(EFE) Cuban National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon said he did not believe that the meeting of US diplomats with Cuban dissidents earlier this weekend, after talks with the government about immigration, ruptures the dialogue between Washington and Havana.

HAVANA (AFP) – The United States demanded Friday the "immediate release" of an American contractor who has been detained in Cuba since December, the US State Department said.

(Associated Press) HAVANA – The last time U.S. diplomats traveled to Havana, they held secret talks with their Cuban counterparts that were hailed as the most significant in decades.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States and Cuba were Wednesday holding fresh talks on migration issues, with President Barack Obama's administration sending its highest-ranking envoy yet to the communist-ruled island.

The government of Cuba, chronically poor and forced to import most of its food, is fighting back by going green. It is surrounding its urban areas with thousands of organic farms, as part of a five-year plan under President Raul Castro to make the country's food supply low-cost and environmentally-friendly.

Last week, a Cuban movie critic became the last person in the world to see Avatar.  In a review in Granma, the official daily of the Communist Party of Cuba, Rolando Pérez Betancourt pooh-poohs the money-minting, Oscar-nominated movie as a dumb action flick:

The White House and top Democratic Party officials are aggressively recruiting Democrat Joe Garcia to seek a newly open Republican-held House seat in South Florida – a chance, party officials believe, for a rare pickup opportunity in a politically crucial state.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A bipartisan drive in Congress to end a Cold War-era travel ban on Cuba was buried during the healthcare reform debate but its supporters hope to dig it out this year.

HAVANA (AFP) – Cuba has released the last five of a group of 35 dissidents it arrested last week for demonstrating on behalf of a conscientious objector, a Cuban human rights group said.

CNN) -- Ramiro Valdes, 77, is one of only four remaining original rebels led by Fidel Castro in the 1950s in Cuba. By Cuban standards, he has had a remarkable career, serving the Castro brothers loyally for years in a variety of posts, some which made him notorious.

HAVANA (AFP) – Yoan used to earn 25 dollars a month working as a computer technician for a state company -- and an extra 500 dollars selling Internet access on Cuba's vast and varied black market.

Former Polish President and Nobel Peace Laureate Lech Walesa, a key player in helping bringing down communism in Eastern Europe, said Tuesday there will be a political change in Cuba soon,

``It's going to happen, no doubt about it,'' Walesa said, speaking through an interpreter.

Cuba wants to negotiate an agreement with the U.S. to slow the trafficking of its citizens fleeing the island and hopes to tackle the issue during immigration talks rescheduled for February, the foreign minister said Thursday.

The president of the Cuban American National Foundation and a director of the Cuban Liberty Council ridiculed a three-day conference that opens Wednesday in Havana and has drawn about 450 Cuban expatriates from around the world, including several from South Florida.

In recent days much has been reported in the local media regarding the status of the Cuba Democracy Program at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). (Read Full text of statement)

When famed Cuban dance band Los Van Van performed in Miami on Oct. 9, 1999, thousands of rock- and bottle-throwing demonstrators outside the now-demolished Miami Arena outnumbered the concertgoers inside. The incident capped months of controversy over the band's appearance and reverberated in the national media, branding Miami -- almost as deeply as would the Elián González incident -- as a place where exile passions could turn violent.

A FRIEND of Alan P. Gross the veteran development consultant from Potomac who has been jailed without charge in Cuba, says that Mr. Gross's mistake may have been "not seeing anything wrong with what he was doing." If so, we can sympathize. .

Cuba's Raul Castro may try to "institutionalize the revolution" before he leaves power by strengthening the military and legislature and "revising" the communist ideology, according to one scenario crafted by a Cuba expert at the University of Miami.

The Spanish Presidency's hopes of reviewing the EU's long-standing position on Cuba were frustrated last week when influential representatives from Europe's leading political family proclaimed their opposition to the move.

Today, the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) extended its condolences and support to the people of Haiti in the aftermath of yesterday’s devastating earthquake. This

(MSNBC)The U.S. State Department Operations Center said Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti should call 1-888-407-4747. Due to heavy volume, some callers may receive a recording. "Our embassy is still in the early stages of contacting American citizens through our Warden Network," the U.S. State Department said in a statement. "Communications are very difficult within Haiti at this time."  For those interesting in helping immediately, simply text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill. Haitian President René Préval issued an urgent appeal for his earthquake-shattered nation Wednesday, saying he had been stepping over dead bodies and hearing the cries of those trapped under the rubble of the national Parliament. Miami Herald article follows.

WASHINGTON — The United States contractor detained in Cuba last month and accused of being a spy is a 60-year-old social worker from the Washington suburbs who had gone to Cuba to provide communications equipment to Jewish nonprofit organizations, according to American officials.

(MADRID) - The Spanish EU presidency defended Monday its proposal for a new bilateral agreement on ties with Cuba, saying this would legally commit the communist island to improving human rights.

HAVANA (AFP) – US-Cuba tensions are on the rise over a US decision to include Cuba in strict aviation security checks imposed after a foiled Al-Qaeda airline bomb plot, ending President Barack Obama's fleeting honeymoon in Havana.

MADRID – Spain's foreign minister criticized Cuba on Tuesday for denying entry to a Spanish politician who has promoted ties with opposition figures on the Caribbean island.

MADRID – Spain's Foreign Ministry summoned the Cuban ambassador Monday to explain why a Spanish politician who has promoted ties with Cuban opposition figures was denied entry to the island and held for a couple of hours before being sent back home.

President Obama has loosened travel restrictions to Cuba. His critics accuse him of harboring socialist sentiments. And he is, of course, a member of the African American intelligentsia -- a group that has tended, for the last half-century, to have a soft spot for the Cuban revolution.

HAVANA — On one block on the outskirts of the Cuban capital, a mother of two goes door to door selling hair ribbons and other sundries to her neighbors. An old man sells cookies and candies to those who ring the bell at his dilapidated home. A grandmother fills up empty beer cans with low-budget rum, which she sells in the evenings to help make ends meet.

HAVANA (AFP) – US officials have visited a US citizen detained more than three weeks ago in Cuba, after the government of President Raul Castro granted consular access, an official with the US Interest Section in Havana said Tuesday

(MADRID) - Spain will use its six-month stint at the helm of the European Union to launch a concerted drive to improve ties with Latin America, especially Cuba, as well as to tackle the continent's economic woes.

HAVANA, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Havana's famed Tropicana nightclub turns 70 this week, its glamour days as an international celebrity haunt well behind it, but its future assured as a money-making hotspot for the cash-strapped Cuban government.

 Carlos Varela often referred to as Cuba’s Bob Dylan, had come to remix an album with his good friend Jackson Browne. But he also hoped to help reshape relations between the United States and his homeland.

HAVANA – Cuba built about 20,000 homes in 2009, meeting barely 60 percent of its modest annual construction goal and further exacerbating a severe housing crunch, the official press said Thursday.

Working on behalf of an American pro-democracy group, the former student leader of the Czech Velvet Revolution knocked on a Cuban dissident's door and sat down to chat — then spent the night in a hotel in the same Ciego de Avila town. He was quickly picked up by Cuban authorities and jailed for more than three weeks.

WASHINGTON — Major U.S. travel operators gathered in a downtown Washington hotel Wednesday to listen to a pitch for business from Cuban government officials, who appeared on a giant screen via the Internet from Havana to tout the island.

A U.S. government contractor confirmed Saturday that Cuba has detained one of its subcontractors' employees but did not comment on a report he went to the island as a tourist and was handing out laptops and communications equipment.

Cuba is counter-attacking its cyber-foes with government backers calling them mercenaries and CIA agents, but sometimes admitting it's difficult to fight Internet critics like well-known blogger Yoani Sánchez.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate approved a provision on Sunday to facilitate cash sales of U.S. farm goods to Cuba, overturning restrictions by former President George W. Bush's administration, a senator said.

HAVANA, Cuba - Government supporters screaming insults and slogans broke up two tiny International Human Rights Day marches Thursday and chased away a British diplomat onlooker, pounding on his car as he drove away.  

HAVANA (Reuters) – Hundreds of government supporters drowned out two small opposition protests in Cuba's capital on Thursday, chanting and jeering at the dissidents as they marched to mark International Human Rights Day. 

Cuba’s renowned dissidents, the “Ladies in White” (Damas de Blanco), have been attacked by mobs organized by the Castro regime’s State Security apparatus since 10:00 AM today.

New rules apply to packages being sent to Cuba from the United States. On September 8, 2009, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a Federal Register final rule revising existing restrictions on exports of gift parcels.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuban musicians are returning to perform in the United States after a long freeze on such visits, seizing the opportunity of friendlier overtures toward Havana from U.S. President Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Long-planned talks on Cuban migration to the United States have been delayed by two months until February, a State Department official said on Thursday, offering no explanation for the postponement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Cuban musician barred from the United States by the Bush administration performed in Washington on Thursday and had lunch with a White House official in a new sign of a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations.

HAVANA — Activists from 32 little-known organizations opposed to Cuba's communist government issued a call for an end to social repression on the island at a Thursday gathering in the home of a prominent human rights activist.

HAVANA – The ailing son of one of Cuba's revolutionary heroes said he was detained by security officials for three days after protesting that authorities wouldn't let him leave the country for treatment.

HAVANA – The Roman Catholic Church is joining Cuba's booming blogosphere with a new Web site launched Monday that aims to provide a virtual forum for the island's faithful.

HAVANA – Cuba's armed forces launched three days of intense military exercises across the island Thursday, a mobilization that state-controlled media says is designed to guard against an American invasion.

It delights us to cure ourselves of that stage of life we call adolescence and, in particular, to become independent. Finding an answer to that question we have asked ourselves so often: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Willy Chirino, Pedro Pan kid turned Cuban-American salsero, has an offer for Raúl. Yeah, that Raúl, Fidel Castro's little brother now running that prison paradise across the Florida Straits.

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- A metaphorical timeout has been in place between the United States and Cuba for nearly 50 years. But that could all be changing with the help of sports.

At a tempestuous hearing Thursday, one House member after another criticized a growing campaign to lift the ban on American tourists traveling to Cuba. The move would reward a regime that oppresses its own people, lawmakers declared, pointing to the recent assault on Yoani Sánchez, a Cuban blogger and government critic, by suspected state security agents.

Thank you for this opportunity to exchange views with you and your readers in Cuba and around the world and congratulations on receiving the Maria Moore Cabot Prize award from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism for coverage of Latin America that furthers inter-American understanding. You richly deserve the award. I was disappointed you were denied the ability to travel to receive the award in person.

WASHINGTON — Any good will that Raul Castro enjoyed as Cuba's new leader has dissipated, according to a new poll, which found that more than four out of five of those surveyed in Cuba were unhappy with the direction of the country.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States and Cuba will hold a second round of talks on migration issues in Havana at a yet undetermined date, a State Department spokesman said Monday.

Ever since Raul Castro became Cuba’s President in February 2008, people—at home and abroad—have been waiting for changes that would improve living conditions on the island. But the changes have been slow coming and there are indications that when they do take place they might not be the ones hoped for.

HAVANA (Reuters) – A group led by the head of the United States' biggest science organization is in Cuba this week to discuss ways to rekindle scientific cooperation as U.S.-Cuba relations slowly improve under U.S. President Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States said it "strongly deplores" the forcible detention and beating last week of three Cuban bloggers on their way to a peaceful march in Havana.

Opponents of opening Cuba to American tourists are touting a letter signed by 53 Democrats in the House of Representatives , saying it shows that they have the votes to derail an effort to lift the ban on travel to the island.

HAVANA, Cuba, NOV. 6, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The president of the Vatican's communication council is asking Cuba's President Raúl Castro to allow the Church normal access to the media, so that it can fully carry out its mission.

Secret police agents abducted and beat award-winning blogger Yoani Sanchez, whose online reports chronicle the dark side of everyday life in communist Cuba, on her way to a march for non-violence, she said Saturday.

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel called it the “happiest day in German history.” French President Nicolas Sarkozy drove all the way from Paris to witness it, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said it helped build trust.

HAVANA – The European Union's development commissioner wants Cuba to show signs it's serious about protecting fundamental human rights.

HAVANA (AFP) – The European Union does not seek a regime change in communist Cuba, but expects progress on human rights, a visiting EU official said after meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro.

Havana -- The habanero peppers, oranges and peanuts cost more at Cuba's free-market "agros" -- farmers markets where vendors, not the government, set prices. But food stalls overflow with abundance not seen elsewhere on the shortage-plagued island.

A popular website of classified ads that has given Cubans a taste of the free market has been blocked on the communist-run island, Internet users said.

Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The Treasury Department says it wants companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. to resume instant messaging services in countries including Cuba and Iran that remain under U.S. trade sanctions.

UNITED NATIONS – Cuba is willing to hold talks with the United States "on any level," Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said Wednesday in conciliatory remarks aimed at the Obama administration.

Madrid - Several European Union countries have asked Spain to clarify what kind of policy it will pursue in relation to Cuba during its EU presidency in the first half of 2010, government sources said Wednesday.

NEW ORLEANS – When Mayor Ray Nagin jetted off to Cuba recently, the buzz around town and on the Web had little to do with trade opportunities or disaster preparedness, the jaunt's stated mission.

Broward residents who want to fly to Cuba may have an option closer to home than Miami in the future.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama asked Spain to send Cuba a message about the need for reform when he met Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero earlier this month, according to a U.S. official.

As he returns to New Orleans on Thursday after a six-day junket in Cuba, Mayor Ray Nagin almost certainly will face questions about the latest addition to his already extensive collection of controversial comments.

HAVANA – Cuba has freed one of the 54 political prisoners still behind bars following a state crackdown on dissent six years ago and also paroled a Spanish businessman awaiting trial for bribery, officials in Spain and a Cuban political opposition group said Tuesday.

Cuba may soon be saying adios to ration books. The system that allows islanders to buy food at deeply subsidized prices each month has long been one of the central building blocks of the country's socialist system, providing everyone from surgeons to street-sweepers the same allotment of basic foods such as rice, beans and a bit of chicken.

Cuba's workplace cafeterias are closing, President Raúl Castro keeps saying the well-off shouldn't get the same subsidies as the poor, and now there are rumblings that one of the stalwart vestiges of the revolution -- the ration booklet -- has outlived its usefulness.

Cuba recently gave a top State Department official a long-blocked permission to visit dual U.S.-Cuban citizens jailed on the island -- but it did not accept a U.S. offer to relax travel restrictions on each other's diplomats, El Nuevo Herald has confirmed.

HAVANA (AP) — 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.

The surrender this weekend of Luis Armando Peña Soltren, 66, to U.S. authorities in New York ended a 40-year quest to bring the hijacker to justice.

We are writing to urge the immediate confirmation of Dr. Arturo Valenzuela as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, nominated to the post by President Obama on May 12, 2009.

Joan Brown Campbell, the church lady who befriended Elián González during his sojourn here a decade ago, has been to Cuba 37 times -- except during the last Bush administration, when she could not get the required U.S. permission to visit the island for four straight years.

At the end of his internationally televised concert in Havana's Revolution Plaza on Sunday, Sept. 20, Colombian rock superstar Juanes looked out at a crowd of more than 1 million and shouted, "Cuba libre! Cuba libre!"

Half a million Cubans turned out recently for a free “Peace Without Borders” concert at Havana’s Revolution Square, where Fidel Castro delivered countless long-winded diatribes against the American imperialists and Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in 1998.

Today, the New York Philharmonic announced that it had been denied a visa by the U.S. Treasury Department to engage in travel to Cuba as part of a program of cultural exchange.

Amid the hubbub stirred by the concert in Havana, the 70th anniversary of Jorge Mas Canosa's birth went almost unobserved. His relatives, along with a group of his friends who have not forgotten him, celebrated his birth on Sept. 21 at Bacardi House.

HAVANA (Reuters) – A senior U.S. diplomat who participated in recent talks in Havana about resuming bilateral mail service with Cuba stayed around to meet with Cuban officials and other Cubans in the latest sign of thawing U.S.-Cuba relations.

HAVANA – Cuba on Monday acknowledged a failure to pay cash-strapped farmers on time and said some local officials lied to cover up the problem — a blunt admission from the communist government that crucial agriculture reforms lauded by President Raul Castro have so far fallen short.

A year ago, U.S. Coast Guard vessels plying the waters between Florida and Cuba were busy stopping dozens of Cuban migrants each and every month.

When it comes to crafting Cuba policy, Congress has been in the back seat of late. The sweeping new rules released last month that loosen the 49-year-old U.S. embargo against the island came from the executive branch and the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

CEIBA DEL AGUA, Cuba -- Faced with the smothering inefficiencies of a state-run economy and unable to feed his people without massive imports of food, Cuban leader Raúl Castro has put his faith in compatriots like Esther Fuentes and his little farm out in the sticks.

Enrique Santos, popular radio personality on 98.3 FM, is no fan of Fidel Castro. Once, to exile Miami's amusement, he punked the Cuban president, calling him on the air and pretending to be Hugo Chávez.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of people jammed Havana's Revolution Square on Sunday for a concert by Colombian rocker Juanes and other international pop stars who hope music can do what politics has not -- bring together Cubans here and in the United States.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The first round of talks on restoring direct mail service between long-time foes Cuba and the United States were "positive," the US State Department said.

HAVANA (Reuters) – The United States and Cuba will discuss on Thursday the possible resumption of long-suspended direct postal service in another small step toward seeking better relations after 50 years of hostilities.

Pressure on religious leaders in Cuba has increased significantly over the past year according to a new report by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

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."

Jose Obdilio Duran's '57 Chevy has holes in its mottled floor, a passenger window that can't be rolled up and no inside panels on its doors. But the 71-year-old retiree wants to put the old car to work — applying for one of the first taxi licenses this communist country has granted in a decade.

MIAMI — Francisco Jose Hernandez points to the boarded windows in his secretary's third floor office. Days before, a drive-by shooter peppered the glass with bullets.  The Cuban American National Foundation co-founder and president shrugs off the attack.

Cuban bloggers sent Twitter messages to announce the winners of their first-ever contest -- two milestones in a country where a report Thursday said a ``vibrant'' blogosphere is emerging despite ``vast legal and technical obstacles.''

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) -- Money transfer agent The Western Union Co. said Wednesday it will implement new rules on sending money to Cuba.

As pressure to dismantle the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba mounts in Washington, pro-embargo flames still burn in Miami, though polls show that support among Cuban Americans for keeping the longstanding law in place has eroded over the years.

Nildo Herrera drew the stares of fellow passengers and airline ticket agents as he checked into his recent Havana flight at Miami International Airport wearing five hats, one atop another.

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") today is amending the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR) to implement the President's initiative of April 13, 2009. These amendments to the CACR change the rules in three major areas, family visits, family remittances, and telecommunications, as well as make certain technical and conforming changes to the CACR.  Please follow the link below for complete details: http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/legal/regs/31cfr515_temp.pdf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans with relatives in Cuba can send them unlimited cash and visit the island as long and often as they would like under new rules that fissured a nearly five-decade trade embargo on Thursday.

The new rules regulating what gifts and how much cash can be sent to Cuba announced by the White House almost five months ago will finally become official Thursday, The Miami Herald has learned.

On Sept. 14, the law used to impose the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba will expire unless President Barack Obama signs an extension. Embargo supporters need not worry, however.

All U.S. presidents since the mid-1970s have signed one-year extensions of the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWTEA).

WASHINGTON – The United States and Cuba will start talks this month on resuming direct mail service between the two countries for the first time in nearly half a century as the Obama administration continues to try to engage the communist island, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS — Cuba is not expected to seek to rejoin the Organization of American States anytime soon despite the OAS vote to lift a decades-old suspension, the multinational group's chief said Monday.

Yoani Sánchez, the blogger who has gained an international following detailing the absurdities of daily life in Cuba, is on the phone from her 14th-floor apartment in Havana, where the elevators rarely work.

MEXICO CITY — The first tropical storms of the season have begun raging across the Atlantic, bringing with them all manner of panic and potential destruction — and, behind the scenes, a little boost in United States-Cuba relations.

HAVANA – A delegation of U.S. Roman Catholic bishops is in Cuba to follow up on hurricane recovery projects funded by the church.

My telephone number shares five digits with that of the nearest pharmacy. So it happens that every day I answer several mis-dialed calls in which someone asks me if this or that medicine has arrived.

The controversy over Colombian rock star Juanes performing in Cuba continues to grow, especially in Miami's politically charged atmosphere.

HAVANA — Fidel Castro marked his 83rd birthday with a bleak warning over US handling of the global economic crisis, as photos emerged of the Cuban former president apparently in better health.

As nongovernmental organizations that form an integral part of MANO and promote respect for civil rights in Cuba, we are convening an on-island March for Freedom, based on the inherent rights of all Cubans to assemble, have their voices heard, and shape their own national destiny.

HAVANA (Reuters) – The number of political prisoners in Cuba rose by three to 208 in the first half of the year as the island continued to have the worst human rights in the Western Hemisphere, a rights group charged on Monday.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba, in the grip of a serious economic crisis, is running short of toilet paper and may not get sufficient supplies until the end of the year, officials with state-run companies said Friday.

In the face of anticipated budget cuts in federal funding of the Office of Cuba Broadcast (OCB) in Miami, Radio and TV Martí will eliminate 35 jobs, or 21.8 percent of their workforce.

The boat was old and needed to be outfitted with the transmission from a 1952 Ford, one of the many American cars that still cruise the streets of Havana. The mechanic warned him there was no reverse gear. The boat could only go forward.

HAVANA – Raul Castro announced Saturday that Cuba will cut spending on education and health care, potentially weakening the building blocks of its communist system in a bid to revive a foundering economy.

It's hard to find a spare tire in Cuba these days, or a cup of yoghurt. Air conditioners are shut off in the dead heat. Factories close at peak hours, and workers go without their government-subsidized lunches.

HAVANA (Reuters) – The United States has turned off a news ticker at its diplomatic mission in Havana that long had irritated the Cuban government, the U.S. State Department said on Monday, in another sign of efforts to improve relations with Cuba.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Friday that he's open to more overtures to Cuba, such as lifting restrictions on academic travel to the island, but not without signs of changes from the government in Havana.

A Generation Y reader sent me a piece of the Berlin Wall. The fragment of concrete has come to me, a person also surrounded by certain limits, not less severe for being intangible.

U.S. NAVAL BASE GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba — The U.S. military quietly conducted a joint exercise last week with the Cuban army on either side of the perimeter of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in southeastern Cuba.

LAS GUASIMAS, Cuba (AFP) – Idalmis Garcia is on the cutting edge of Cuba's bid to boost food production and proudly shows off the small plot of land President Raul Castro's government put her to work on. Now she wants more.

NEW YORK (AFP) – Representatives from Cold-War foes Cuba and the United States, which have experienced a slight thaw since Barack Obama assumed the US presidency, met for migration talks, the first such meeting in six years.

President Obama has informed Congress that he will waive for six months a 1996 law that permits lawsuits against foreign companies who use Cuban property once owned by Americans.

When Franklin Silbey and other members of Temple Israel in West Palm Beach recently visited Jewish synagogues and cemeteries in Cuba, they noticed two details right away.

Paul Haven has been appointed The Associated Press chief of bureau in Havana, Cuba, following three years of leading the cooperative's news operations in Spain and Portugal as Madrid bureau chief.   Senior Managing Editor John Daniszewski made the announcement Friday.

(EFE) The Obama Administration sees “fundamental changes within the Cuban regime” as a prerequisite for progress in the dialogue Washington has initiated with Havana, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Venezuelan television.

Today, the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) praised the Obama Administration’s naming of Joe Garcia to the post of Director of the Office of
Minority Economic Impact for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Long-time political mover and shaker Joe Garcia -- who has been the voice of a powerful Cuban exile group, chairman of the agency that regulates the state's utilities and an unsuccessful congressional candidate -- has been nominated for a post in the Obama administration.

HAVANA, July 6 (Reuters) - The ranks of Cuba's family farmers have grown by more than 30,000 this year as the government conducted the biggest land-lease distribution since the country's 1959 revolution in an effort to solve an agricultural crisis, a newspaper reported on Monday. 

When the National Endowment for Democracy handed out its annual Democracy Award on Wednesday in Washington, all five recipients were Cuban, a first.

Five Cuban dissidents who have collectively spent decades in jail for their pro-democracy activities were given a top award by the National Endowment for Democracy last night. But, unlike in past years, their representative was not invited to the White House, organizers said.

A Cuban spy case that embodied lingering Cold War tensions between the United States and the island nation died in the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.

Two retirees accused of spying for Cuba say they'll stay away from their sailboat and give up their passports and ''maps or other navigational equipment related to Cuba's navigable waters'' in exchange for being released from jail and detained at home.

The head of Cuba's parliament says the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to consider an appeal by five convicted Cuban spies is "a great insult," but it won't jeopardize upcoming negotiations with Washington.

The head of Cuba's parliament says the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to consider an appeal by five convicted Cuban spies is "a great insult," but it won't jeopardize upcoming negotiations with Washington.

The Obama administration is working with Havana to finalize dates to resume long-suspended discussions between the two countries, as Cuban officials signal their interest in expanding the talks beyond migration.

HAVANA -- The head of Cuba's parliament says the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to consider an appeal by five convicted Cuban spies is "a great insult," but it won't jeopardize upcoming negotiations with Washington.

A Cuban spy case that embodied lingering Cold War tensions between the United States and the island nation died in the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.

Cuba made its first official public announcement Monday regarding the Organization of American States' decision to withdraw its 1962 suspension from the hemispheric group: No thanks.

Now that the hemisphere's diplomats have opened the door for the readmission of Cuba to the OAS, the question is whether Cuba is ready to come in from the cold. Don't bet on it.

"I can talk about cigars but I can't talk about change," Christina said sharply, as she showed me the Havana cigar factory where she worked. I had asked how Cuba was evolving under the leadership of Raúl Castro.

HAVANA, June 4 (Reuters) - Cuba announced the resignation of its veteran central bank chief on Thursday as the communist-ruled state grapples with a deepening economic crisis.

Furious members of Congress on Wednesday threatened to cut off funding for the Organization of American States after top diplomats gathered here for its annual assembly repealed Cuba's suspension from the hemispheric group, ending a decades-old remnant of the Cold War.

The 34-country Organization of American States' historic decision to lift its 1962 suspension of Cuba was the easy part. Now comes the real challenge: getting the OAS to demand that Cuba's dictatorship abide by the group's democracy clauses before the island can rejoin the organization.

Cuba is declining to rejoin the Organization of American States, but calls the group's decision to lift a 47-year suspension against it a "major victory."

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - Thirty-four members of the Organization of American States gathered here Tuesday to argue over whether to readmit Cuba. By the end of the day, the United States had failed in an attempt to broker a deal that would have lifted the ban on Havana.

We ask all civil rights authorities and institutions of the world to become involved as we call to the Cuban government to...

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - The United States and Cuba have agreed to resume direct talks on migration, last held in 2003, and open discussions on reestablishing direct mail service between the two countries, U.S. officials said on Sunday.

A diplomatic tug-of-war over Cuba's outcast status in the Organization of American States takes center stage at the group's meeting this week in Honduras, testing U.S. efforts to engage the communist nation.

Cuba has agreed to resume talks with the Obama administration on legal immigration of Cubans to the United States and direct mail service between the two countries, a State Department official said Sunday.

Legislation to ease restrictions on U.S. farm exports to Cuba has been introduced in Congress with backing from several Northwest senators. The bill would promote exports of U.S. agriculture products and medical supplies. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said the measure could broaden market opportunities for Idaho potatoes, wheat, peas, beans, barley, lentils, dairy, beef and wood products. The bill, known as the "Promoting American Agricultural and Medical Exports to Cuba Act of 2009," seeks to:

WASHINGTON -- Raul Castro jousted with Hillary Clinton's State Department Wednesday over who should be the first to make nice on improving relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

As more countries clamor to lift the communist country's 1962 suspension from the hemispheric group, the U.S. State Department threw a curve ball at the debate late Tuesday by submitting a new proposal that would eventually allow Cuba back to the OAS -- as long as Havana abides by the organization's democratic principles.

HAVANA, May 26 (Reuters) - Cuba is facing a "very hard" economic blow in 2009 as depressed nickel prices and reduced tourism revenue could slash foreign income by $1 billion, Cuba's top economic commentator said on Tuesday.

HAVANA (AP) - Cubans are in for an especially hot summer under an energy saving plan that could shut off air conditioners at work and require Saturday-morning blackouts at home, according to an unpublished government directive obtained by The Associated Press.

BAKU, May 19 (RIA Novosti) - Azerbaijan plans to participate in developing oil fields in Cuba in line with a draft cooperation agreement, Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev said on Tuesday.

MIAMI — The crowd of Cuban-Americans pressing against the airport ticket counter scorned those on the other side. Only a handful of American charter companies have landing rights in Cuba, and with the new White House policy letting Cuban-Americans visit relatives there as often as they want, ticket prices have become political.

WASHINGTON — In an abrupt shift, Senate Democratic leaders said they would not provide the $80 million that President Obama requested to close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The move escalates pressure on the president, who on Thursday is scheduled to outline his plans for the 240 terrorism suspects still held there.

Holguín, Cuba, may 14th, 2009. The promoters of the “Con la Misma Moneda”  (With the Same Currency) campaign achieved a major victory in the city of San Germán, Holguín province, by forcing the acceptance of the national currency (Cuban pesos) as payment in an establishment run by the Cuban government’s Cubalse Corporation. Prior to this, the store only accepted Cuban convertible pesos (CUC) as a form of payment.

Radio and TV Martí will lay off 20 percent of their workforce in a shake-up aimed at retooling the struggling anti-Castro stations in the face of a steep federal budget cut.

( HAVANA) - Cuban dissidents questioned Monday whether President Raul Castro is willing to respect human rights in return for normalized relations with the European Union.

The Organization of American States claims to be "the region's principal multilateral forum for strengthening democray, promoting human rights, and confronting shared problems such as poverty, terrorism, illegal drugs and corruption." Why would an organization designed to "strengthen democracy" want Cuba as a member, asks Mary Anastasia O'Grady. N ow OAS Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza wants the group to be able to add a new goal to the list: legitimizing the Cuban military dictatorship by making it a member.

KINGSTON , Ontario (AP) — Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon dismissed President Barack Obama's recent overtures to Cuba and said Saturday the new U.S. administration's stance is a continuation of an illegal, unjustifiable and failed policy. Obama has suggested it may be time for a new beginning with Cuba , and the White House authorized unlimited travel and money transfer for Americans with relatives in Cuba . But his administration has said it would like Cuba to respond by making small political and social changes to its single-party communist system.

Throngs of people who gathered in front of the government headquarters for the annual May Day celebration sent a clear orchestrated message Friday: The Cuban government isn't planning to go away anytime soon.

WASHINGTON—Most Americans seem to reject the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. According to a Washington Post/ABC poll, 57 percent of Americans now oppose the policy. A survey by Bendixen & Associates shows that only 42 percent of Cuban-Americans continue to back it.

Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that the United States and Syria are close to restoring full diplomatic ties, but he doubted Cuba's new openness means its leaders are ready to grant free speech or change their political system.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro repeated on Wednesday an offer to discuss "everything" with the United States to try to improve relations, but said Cuba did not have to make any "gestures" to its long-time enemy.

MIAMI -- Edel Hernández arrived at the airport here last week with a giant duffel bag and a ball cap pulled low over his eyes. Two years earlier he had left Cuba, and he hadn't seen his wife since. "It's been hard," he said, his eyes welling as he tugged on the visor. "Really hard."

WASHINGTON, Apr 22 (IPS) - Despite a growing sense of anticipation coming out of the Trinidad Summit of the Americas last weekend regarding the possibility of a historic breakthrough in U.S.-Cuban relations, specialists here remain uncertain about how and even if that breakthrough will be achieved.

MIAMI -- With the gradual passing of the generation of Cubans who fled their country after former President Fidel Castro seized power, a near consensus is emerging here for the U.S. to ease its harsh policies toward the island, just 90 miles away.

WASHINGTON — Seizing the momentum from recent meetings with Latin American leaders, the Obama administration is quietly pushing forward with efforts to reopen channels of communication with Cuba, according to White House and State Department officials.

The officials said informal meetings were being planned between the State Department and Cuban diplomats in the United States to determine whether the two governments could open formal talks on a variety of issues, including migration, drug trafficking and other regional security matters.

MIAMI — Anger and pain used to drive Rafael Diaz when he spoke about Cuba. A home builder with muscular arms, he denounced all contact with the island he left 48 years ago, seeking to suffocate the government he hated.

Fidel Castro says President Barack Obama "misinterpreted" his brother Raul's remarks regarding the United States and bristled at the suggestion that Cuba should free political prisoners or cut taxes on remittances from abroad as a goodwill gesture to the U.S.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's central bank has said it will limit cash withdrawals and deposits in Cuban bank accounts held by foreign companies and joint ventures.

A majority of Cuban Americans support President Barack Obama and back his moves to improve relations with Cuba, according to a new poll that suggests the community's staunch support for a tough U.S. stance against the Castro government may be eroding.

President Barack Obama sent a clear message Sunday to Cuban leader Raúl Castro: It's your turn.

If Castro wants to start dialogue with the United States, he should release political prisoners and lower the steep fees the Cuban government charges on money sent from abroad, Obama said.

In the days since President Barack Obama relaxed travel restrictions to Cuba, the media have consistently reported how the issue has split Miami's Cuban community.

SINCE Fidel Castro gave up power last year, the long standoff between Cuba and the United States has taken on the measured rhythms of a minuet, delicate steps from Havana met with restrained advances from Washington, each side hiding behind a pose of purpose that may mask their true intentions.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday the Obama administration is reviewing a U.S. policy of deporting undocumented Haitians and left open the possibility of expanding travel to Havana beyond the families of Cuban exiles in the United States.

Clinton made the remarks in an interview with The Miami Herald days ahead of the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago and days after the White House revamped Cuba policy by lifting all travel and gift restrictions for Americans who have relatives on the island. It is the most significant Cuba policy change in decades.

President Obama blinked.

Fidel Castro reflected.

And Mel Martinez may have gotten his moderate mojo back.

President Barack Obama's overture Monday toward Cuba – the most significant in decades – lifted all travel and gift restrictions for Cuban Americans and sent charter companies scrambling for more and bigger jets to meet the expected demand.

WASHINGTON - President Obama yesterday loosened travel and financial restrictions on ties to Cuba, a policy shift that advocates say signals the beginning of the end of a decades-long, Cold War-era relationship with the communist nation.

WASHINGTON — In abandoning longstanding restrictions on the ability of Cuban-Americans to visit and send money to family members on the island, President Obama demonstrated Monday that he was willing to open the door toward greater engagement with Cuba — but at this point, only a crack.

Some Cuban-Americans in Miami are applauding the Obama administration's policy change toward Cuba which will allow for unlimited travel and money transfers.

MIAMI – Delsa Bernardo was ready to pop rolls in the oven at Yiya's Gourmet Cuban Bakery when she heard the news: After years of separation, she could finally visit her 80-year-old aunt in Cuba, any time she wanted.

President Obama directed his administration Monday to allow unlimited travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans to family in Cuba, a decision that drew quick criticism from two Cuban-American congressmen. 

President Obama is lifting some restrictions on Cuban Americans' contact with Cuba and allowing U.S. telecom companies to operate there, opening up the communist island nation to more cellular and satellite service, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced at his regular news briefing today.

The decision does not lift the trade embargo on Cuba but eases the prohibitions that have restricted Cuban Americans from visiting their relatives and has limited what they can send back home.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration has decided to loosen restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba for Cuban-Americans, senior administration officials said Monday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama directed his administration Monday to allow unlimited travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans to family in Cuba, and to take other steps to ease U.S. restrictions on the island, a senior administration official told The Associated Press.

Mr Obama will announce that Washington is lifting the toughest restrictions on travel to the island for Cuban-Americans and the dollar remittances they can send back to impoverished relatives.

A push in Congress to do away with U.S. travel bans on Cuba could set off a flood of American visitors to the long-forbidden island.

But many wonder if a country where foreigners have long complained about lousy food, sluggish service and iffy infrastructure is ready for an onslaught of Americans unseen since the days of Meyer Lansky and Al Capone.

In an historic turnabout, the most prominent Cuban exile organization in the country now wants the Obama White House to expand and enhance relations with the Castro regime.

The Cuban American National Foundation, once a fire-breathing opponent of dialogue with Cuba, has produced a comprehensive 14-page proposal for a different -- and long overdue -- approach.

If, as expected, the Obama administration lifts travel restrictions on Cuban Americans this week to allow them to freely visit Cuba, it would mark the most significant overture toward the island nation by an American president in decades.The advantages for Cuban Americans eager to visit family members on the island more frequently are obvious -- as are the benefits for Cuba's cash-starved government: hundreds of millions of dollars in additional income yearly from exiles visiting family members and dropping money on flights, lodging, meals and gifts for relatives.

MIAMI — The leading organization for Cuban exiles here is calling on the White House to expand relations with Cuba’s government, and funnel much more public and private American money to the Cuban people.

The Obama factor: that's what Francisco "Pepe" Hernandez, the president of the Cuban-American National Foundation, is excited about these days. This week's meetings between a handful of U.S. lawmakers and the Castro brothers in Havana is just window dressing in his mind--the prelude to larger opportunities for change in Cuba.

HALF A DOZEN members of the Congressional Black Caucus spent hours huddling with Fidel and Raúl Castro in Havana this week as part of a swelling campaign to normalize relations with Cuba. "It is time to open dialogue and discussion," Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) told a news conference in Washington after their return. "Cubans do want dialogue. They do want talks." Funny, then, that in five days on the island the Congress members found no time for dialogue with Afro-Cuban dissident Jorge Luis García Pérez.

The Castro government is interested in talking to the United States, a delegation of black members of Congress said Tuesday, returning from a five-day trip to Cuba where they met with Raúl and Fidel Castro.

In Havana, the seven Democrats visited the families of the prisoners and came away inspired. The members of Congress raised concerns about human rights, lengthy prison sentences and the suffering on both sides of the Florida Straits.

The White House advisor to the upcoming Summit of the Americas on Monday confirmed President Barack Obama's intention to ease family travel and remittances to Cuba in coming days and wouldn't rule out a meeting between Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

A summit of leaders from across the Americas won't start for almost two weeks. But Fidel Castro is already complaining about its closing statement.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama plans to lift longstanding U.S. restrictions on Cuba, a senior administration official said, allowing Cuban-Americans to visit families there as often as they like and to send them unlimited funds.

Seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus arrived in Cuba on Friday to discuss improving relations with the communist government amid speculation that Washington could ease travel restrictions to the island.

There are giant cockroaches climbing Havana's National Museum of Art, metal elephants outside the Cuban Capitol building and, in a standing-room-only theater crowd this week, there was Tania Bruguera's public performance art involving spontaneous calls for libertad!

The Obama administration intends to allow Americans to visit relatives in Cuba and send money back to their families on the communist island nation, senior U.S. officials said Saturday.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that the United States is not planning to lift its trade embargo on Cuba.

In a swift reaction Tuesday to a daring call for freedom by participants in a public performance art show in Havana, the Cuban government branded the speakers ''dissidents'' and ''individuals at the service of the propagandistic anti-Cuban machinery.''

Cuba has made no special preparations for a potential avalanche of American tourists if Washington moves forward with a plan to loosen rules on travel to the island, a top official said Tuesday.

Buoyed by a new administration, U.S. advocates for trade with Cuba introduced a bill Tuesday that would lift travel restrictions to the island, allowing Americans to visit there freely.

Cuba promises to be a hot topic at the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, as more Latin American leaders push for the communist country to be embraced by hemispheric organizations, Trinidad's ambassador said Tuesday.

The White House is denying a newspaper report published Wednesday that said President Barack Obama plans a visit to Key West to announce changes to Cuba travel policy.

With uncertain benefit

CHILEAN officials like to compare their country to Finland and New Zealand, rather than its South American neighbours. The centre-left governments that have ruled since 1990 have signed free-trade agreements with half the world. To address fears of becoming isolated from a sometimes unstable neighbourhood, Michelle Bachelet, the current socialist president, has stressed closer ties with Latin America. Last month that tendency took her to Cuba.

March 24 (Bloomberg) -- Cuba made a formal disclosure that two of the country's vice presidents were removed from their posts in a restructuring of President Raul Castro's cabinet announced on March 2, the Associated Press reported.

HAVANA - Cuba's state-controlled media on Monday downplayed eased U.S. rules on family ties with Cuba, calling the measure a defeat for the communist government's foes that still left Washington's 47-year-old trade embargo intact.

Owners of local travel agencies specializing in trips to Cuba are hopeful that an opinion handed down Friday by the U.S. Justice Department will move them one step closer to overturning a state law aimed at further regulating their business.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday urged Cuba to free political prisoners immediately and to improve human rights on the communist-ruled island.

The only two Central American countries that don't recognize Cuba's government say they plan to re-establish diplomatic ties with the communist nation.

Cuba's Ladies in White decided to pray instead of protest for their imprisoned relatives Tuesday as they marked the sixth anniversary of a crackdown in which the government jailed 75 activists and independent journalists.

Coral Gables, FL-An exit poll of Cuban-Americans conducted in Miami during the 2008 elections indicates that 56.5 percent of those interviewed support the keeping or tightening of the U.S. embargo while 43.5 percent support easing it.  Regarding travel to the island, 52.5 percent support the U.S. policy while 47.5 percent advocate easing it.  The authors emphasize that "the seismic shift in the political preferences of the Cuban-American community predicted by the national news media was not realized."

For years, two tidbits of conventional wisdom have dominated debates among Cubanologists (a tropical subspecies of former Kremlinologists). First, that Deputy Prime Minister and economic czar Carlos Lage has been in charge of running the island economy since the early '90s, and, despite differences of opinion regarding his performance, was seen as one of the most likely successors to Fidel Castro's brother and successor, Raúl. Second, that Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque was not only in charge of the international relations Fidel Castro took increasingly less interest in, but that he was something of a favorite son. Most observers, including several Latin American ex-presidents close to Castro, saw him as the heir apparent, once the caudillo's brother passed from the scene. So Raúl's decision to dump the two stars a fortnight ago is a major event in Cuba, and unlike previous purges, this one is clearly linked to Fidel Castro's succession, and may tell us a great deal about what lies ahead.

The Russian military has reached a contingency agreement to land long-range supersonic bomber aircraft in Venezuela, according to reports from Moscow on Saturday, which analysts cast as a nuisance rather than reason for alarm.

HAVANA- Cuba's government wants dialogue with the United States and is waiting to see what policy changes will emerge from the Obama administration, but Cuba will not accept any U.S. preconditions, according to a senior Foreign Ministry official in Havana.

Cubans say Washington's easing of travel and spending restrictions for Cuban-Americans visiting the communist island will be a boon to small business and a key step toward warmer relations with the United States.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that would relax some limits on contacts with Cuba, in what could herald deeper changes to the long-standing U.S. policy of shunning the communist-ruled island.

Facing strong opposition from lawmakers with large Cuban-American constituencies, the Obama administration pledged -- in writing -- that changes to U.S.-Cuba policy tucked into the giant 2009 spending bill will have no teeth.

Several South American defense ministers on Tuesday urged President Barack Obama to lift the U.S. embargo on Cuba, saying such a move was crucial to improve U.S. ties with the region.

WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has persuaded two Democratic senators to drop opposition to the omnibus spending bill that was linked to their concern over changes to sanctions on Cuba.

The U.S. Treasury Department has promised opponents of changes to U.S.-Cuba policy tucked into a giant spending bill that some of the most controversial provisions will result in little change.

The new face of the Cuban government overseas is a man with perfect English, a steady professional style, and more than a decade of experience living in New York as a Cuba representative at the United Nations.

President Barack Obama is poised to offer an olive branch to Cuba in an effort to repair the US's tattered reputation in Latin America.

Cuba's new Cabinet members named in a surprise political shake-up last week are a cadre of unknowns who share a history of cracking down on waste and running a tight ship.

A fast-moving spending bill that would weaken sanctions against Cuba took some hits Wednesday, with Sen. Mel Martinez suggesting he's got a chance to block it.

WASHINGTON - The $410 billion spending bill working its way through Congress this week has become an unlikely platform for debate about United States policy toward Cuba.

Cuban President Raúl Castro on Monday gave his cabinet an unprecedented, wide-sweeping shake-up that experts say shows he's moving toward doing things his way -- efficiently, and surrounded by the military brass he trusts.

HAVANA - Cuba abruptly replaced some of its most powerful and visible officials on Monday, including Vice President Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.

Amid two wars and an economic crisis, Cuba policy hardly ranks at the top of President Barack Obama's long agenda.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a huge spending bill Wednesday that tweaked U.S.-Cuba policy, making it easier for Cuban Americans to get away with illegally traveling to the communist country.

The 1,128-page budget bill that will begin to work its way through Congress this week contains key paragraphs that alter the shape of U.S.-Cuba policy and ease Cuba family travel restrictions by not funding enforcement.

HAVANA, Cuba - The public reading last week of a selection from Orlando Pardo's new book, "Boring Home," at the Havana Book Fair marked the first time in 50 years that Cuban authorities allowed a reading from a book not approved by the state.

Senator Richard Lugar, a Republican Senator, is urging the United States to reconsider its relations with Cuba.

Havana-There is an American very much on the minds of Cubans, from veteran officials inured to the nearly half century of estrangement from the United States to ordinary people on the streets of this faded but still lively seaside capital. That American is Barack Obama, whose path-breaking arrival at the White House has both captivated Cubans and raised expectations that the U.S.-Cuban political standoff may at last be eased during his presidency.Obama is seen here as the first American leader in some time who represents change and who might take steps that somehow help bring prosperity to this communist island nation. "We voted for him, too," jokes one 68-year-old Havana man. Says Karel Trueba, a 21-year-old university student in Havana: "Many things will change with him-relations between the United States and the world, including Cuba."

For more than a century, the United States has controlled the Guantanamo naval base in eastern Cuba for a measly $4,085 in lease fees per year. Cuba has long refused to cash the checks.

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom apologized to Cuba on Tuesday for his country's having allowed the CIA to train exiles in the Central American country for the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

In the closed room of the Palace of Conventions an Information Technology conference ended today, one which was accessible only to foreign delegates or Cubans with credentials. As much as I tried to slip into the event, I lacked the association with an official institution needed to be there. As an optimistic preamble to the meeting, the Vice Minister of Informatics and Communications gave an interview to the newspaper Juventud Rebelde [Rebellious Youth]. Full of statements about a vague future that could happen next week or in a decade, he renewed-- in some -- hopes for broad access to the internet. However, after reading the answers of this functionary several times, I'm more alarmed than comforted.

Marisabel, a warehouse clerk in her 40s, wants to leave Cuba and move to Spain. A tattered piece of paper -- her grandmother's Spanish birth certificate -- may allow her to do that.

MIAMI - Everything about the evening newscast at TV Marti looks and sounds as it might at any live broadcast studio.

After decades on the air and the expense of half a billion dollars, it remains unclear whether any Cubans listen to or watch U.S.-funded radio and television broadcasts to the island, according to a new congressional report on Radio and TV Martí released Wednesday.

MADRID (AFP)--Thousands gathered Sunday in central Madrid to protest against Cuba's Communist regime, one day after a large rally in support of President Raul Castro's leadership was held in the Spanish capital.

HAVANA - The number of political prisoners held in Cuba continues to fall gradually, but brief detentions of activists have soared under President Raul Castro's rule, with more than 1,500 documented last year, the island's leading independent rights group said Monday.

In a place normally reserved for heated arguments about Cuba's national pastime, an unusual political discussion took place on a warm January afternoon.

Cuba's socialist system has done little to protect the island from the economic turmoil that has engulfed its capitalist adversaries.

HAVANA -- Carried by a wave of popular enthusiasm, led mainly by the youth of America, Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States when he took office on Tuesday. That historic event smashed the prejudices that had existed in that nation for centuries and created great expectations worldwide regarding the colossal challenges facing mankind.

As she loaded them in her car, the group was chatty, open and warm -- nothing like the strained, often bombastic, U.S.-Cuba relations of the past half century.

Para todo cubano que ame la patria y su libertad la importancia de Radio Martí es enorme e intransferible. Es el único instrumento que tenemos para hacer llegar nuestra verdad al pueblo de Cuba y es la voz de aquellos que no tienen voz dentro de la isla.

LOS PALACIOS, Cuba - More than four months have passed since Cuba was hit by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike; more than two months since Hurricane Paloma made landfall. Yet earlier this month, Gerardo Danilo Fuentes crawled along the wooden beams of a roofless house.

 Associated Press Writer Will Weissert, Associated Press Writer 22 mins ago

HAVANA - Cubans expressed hope Tuesday that Barack Obama's inauguration could bring monumental changes to their island, even if bans on satellite television kept most from witnessing the moment.

VARADERO, Cuba - On their first day of vacation at Cuba's top beach resort, Canadian couple Jim and Tammy Bosch enjoyed a midmorning cocktail in the Club Hemingway lobby bar of the Marina Palace hotel.

HAVANA -- Vicente González says that although Barack Obama is no Karl Marx-- "he is a capitalist and likely an imperialist" -- he has high hopes that the new president could begin to warm the relationship between Cuba and the United States, which remains frozen in a Cold War time warp. "It is time," the Havana barber said, perhaps unwittingly repeating the Obama slogan, "for a change."

In the wake of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution on January 1st, President Raúl Castro has made overtures to the USpresident-elect, Barack Obama. Seizing on Mr Obama's statements on the campaign trail that he would be willing to meet with Cuban officials and consider loosening sanctions, Mr Castro has repeated a recent offer to meet on "neutral ground". However, though Mr Obama is likely to ease some of the restrictions on US-Cuba economic and family ties, a more substantial revamping of the US's trade and investment embargo on the island is not likely in the short term.

The Cuban Revolution on Jan. 1 celebrated its 50th anniversary within a bleak economic context. The end-of-the-year session of Cuba's National Assembly highlighted the country's severe economic difficulties. The leadership stressed the need to cut down on state subsidies and raise salaries, but did not spell out any single reform.

HAVANA (AFP) - Communist Cuba's President Raul Castro has offered to talk directly "without intermediaries" and on equal terms with incoming US president Barack Obama, who has said he would consider direct dialogue.