NEWS24

Fidel Castro remains pivotal figure

A year after Fidel Castro stepped aside as president, the long-time Cuban leader remains a pivotal figure in the island's politics

ST PETERSBURG TIMES

Time to scrap TV Marti, critics say

For the past 18 years, the lack of an audience has been the daily dilemma at TV Marti, the world's least-watched news station. The United States has spent an estimated half billion dollars over the past two decades broadcasting TV and radio programming into Cuba, most of which are jammed by Havana.

RADIO REBELDE

Fidel Castro: 'I'm so scared!'

Text of Fidel Castro's latest reflection, sniping back at critics in Chile

THE WASHINGTON POST

The mystifying life and many deaths of Cuba's Fidel Castro

On the front page of Cuba's state newspaper Granma last week, the lone star on the Cuban flag had mysteriously faded away in an old black-and-white photograph announcing a celebration of patriot José Martí. Copies quickly sold out as rumors flew across the island. What did it mean? Was it a portent? Had the inevitable finally happened? As it turned out, Fidel Castro was not dead.

SUN SENTINEL

Couple's home a monument to the Cuban revolution?

For 40 years, Rodolfo Montenegro and his wife have lived in a cramped, windowless, toiletless space within the magnificent granite and marble monument to Maximo Gomez guarding the entrance to Havana Bay. Home to 11.3 million people, Cuba suffers from a severe housing crunch. The state acknowledges the need for half a million additional homes. Critics claim the need is twice that. More than 40 percent of Cubans live in housing listed in average-to-poor condition.

SUN SENTINEL

Cuba renews demands for return of Guantanamo base

With President Barack Obama ordering the prison for terrorism suspects at the Guantanamo base closed within a year, Cuba is renewing demands that the U.S. hand over the entire base.

REUTERS

Cuban who banned Beatles has died

The man who banned the Beatles from the communist-run island's radio and television stations has died, state television said on Tuesday. Jorge "Papito" Serguera, who at the time was president of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, pulled Beatles music from the airwaves in the 1970s even though he later admitted he enjoyed listening to it in private.

U.S.NEWS

Cuba plans new offshore drilling

Cuban officials say that exploratory drilling to assess the potential for oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico is likely to resume in the second quarter of this year, a sign that lower world oil prices have not derailed efforts by the Cuban government and its foreign corporate partners to keep moving toward offshore oil production.

USA TODAY

Cuba struggles with recovery after three hurricanes

Cubans praised their government for its evacuation planning that resulted in only seven deaths from three hurricanes this year. The contrast with the United States' handling of Hurricane Katrina is not lost on residents here. But many in a rural town on the western edge of the island remain upset over the pace of recovery and question whether Cuba's government — in which a centralized bureaucracy determines where every piece of aid goes — can handle the recovery.

THE EXPOSITOR

Time to help Cuba join world of democracies

Havana, once called "the naughtiest city on earth," is a museum of the 1950s: Decaying, melancholy, dark. Cuba has Latin America's best medical and education system, and highest literacy. But life in Cuba is grim: Food and power shortages, endless queuing, grinding poverty and constant supervision by secret policemen and Communist party informers.

SUN SENTINEL

Bush sends last message to the Cuban people

President Bush today delivered ``a message to the Cuban people,’’ apparently his way of saying goodbye after eight years of struggling to force political reforms on their island nation.

ESPN

Cuban BB players say injustice, not MLB, made them defect

The possibility of an MLB career was not the primary reason pitcher Yadel Marti and outfielder Yasser Gomez left Cuba in a raft during the holidays. The first and most important reason, according to them, was leaving a life of abuse, humiliation and injustices.

ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

Obama represents hope for Cubans

Sitting in her cramped apartment in a pot-holed street in Old Havana, Odalys Calzadilla's eyes brighten when the subject turns to President-elect Obama.

FINANCIAL TIMES

Workers gain as Cuba shifts gears

In a series of speeches and interviews dedicated to the anniversary, President Raúl Castro hammered away at the theme that workers did not appreciate many government benefits – with the exception of free health, education and subsidised culture – and should be given higher wages instead.

Raul Castro warns Cubans that life will not be easier

Fifty years ago, Raúl Castro walked into the Moncada Army barracks with just one bodyguard and the soldiers under dictator Fulgencio Batista easily surrendered. On Thursday, the Cuban leader stood before the nation as president celebrating five decades of spirited defiance against ''sick, venegeful hate'' by the United States.

Approval, discontent greet Castro revolution's 50th year in Cuba

At Parque Dolores, tourist buses filled with Canadians and Europeans lugging cameras that cost two years' wages here listen to musical trios while elderly men pick through the trash.

After 50 years, questions about Cuba still hound Wieland

William Arthur Wieland's name has now faded from memory, but the former State Department official made headlines half a century ago -- blamed for Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista's downfall and Fidel Castro's rise to power, even though privately he derided Castro as communist and dangerous.

50 YEARS | REVOLUTION AND EXILE

Sports in Cuba still No. 1 despite declines

The decline of Cuba as a sports power is a reflection of the state of the island. But the nation remains competitive.

50 YEARS | REVOLUTION AND EXILE

'Yanqui' rebel William Morgan's saga in Cuban revolution is revived

The image of the 'yanqui comandante' has faded, but ex-rebels still recall his role in a revolution that changed Cuba.

THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

50 years ago, Cuba's rebels took control

Cuban history was made on New Year's Eve 1958 when Fulgencio Batista fled and insurgents led by Fidel Castro declared victory.