YOMIURI
The National Bank of Cuba told Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) on Aug. 11 that the bank would not be able to pay for imports into Cuba in due terms as the country is short of funds, the independent administrative institution said Monday.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Cuba, one of the world’s last surviving Communist states, is looking at watering down the generous social welfare system that has been a cornerstone of its economy for nearly 50 years, according to a senior government official.
ISN
Rumors of Russia's interest in using Cuba for a military base sparks speculation that renewed interests in the island may become a leverage point for Raúl Castro.
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
One of Cuban President Raúl Castro's most dramatic recent announcements was that he would allow private farmers access to up to 100 acres of idle government land.
AP
Oregon Republican Congressional candidate Mike Erickson estimates he spent roughly "a third" of his time distributing medical supplies during a trip to Cuba in 2004. The Oregonian newspaper reported Sunday that he spent most of the week vacationing.
FINANCIAL TIMES
Fixing Santiago's defective pipelines and aqueduct is one of a number of projects being given priority as Cuba's Communist government ploughs billions of dollars into roads, electricity and water infrastructure.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Mario Romero says a slowdown in his business, a Hialeah travel agency that books trips to Cuba, is the result of a shift in regulations on this side of the Straits of Florida. A state law passed this summer requires agencies like his to post bonds of as much as $250,000. The state would use the money to open investigations of companies suspected of skirting the rules governing travel to Cuba.
FEDERAL COURTS
A federal appeals court in New Orleans on Thursday reinstated an indictment against Luis Posada Carriles that charged the Cuban exile militant with lying about how he sneaked into the United States in 2005.
REUTERS
Venezuelan Agriculture Minister Elias Jaua said on Tuesday his oil-rich country would give $2 million grants to 18 Caribbean and Central American countries to buy fertilizer for the coming growing season.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
As a major terrorism trial was getting under way at the American naval base on Guantánamo Bay last month, the Cuban city of Guantánamo’s municipal court had a contested divorce on its docket. It was the only case that afternoon.
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Fidel Castro turns 82 on Wednesday as brother Raúl tackles a monumental challenge: Keeping the revolution alive despite a widening generation gap.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
The odd dynamic of brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro portraying themselves as joined at the hip even as they seem to veer apart in important ways may be awkward, but it serves both men’s interests.
SUSPENSE
Havana Gold: The Havana Quartet. Leonardo Padura. Translated by Peter Bush. Bitter Lemon. 278 pages. $14.95 in paper. Leonardo Padura is arguably Cuba's most important writer of fiction. That this distinction should fall on an author of detective fiction instead of a scribe aiming for the Great Cuban Novel says a lot about the uneasy relationship between Castro's Cuba and its literati.
THE WASHINGTON POST
Many Americans worry these days about the state of the economy. Some are concerned about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still others fret about environmental matters. But this is a big country, with enough important problems for just about everyone to ponder. Take this July 8 e-mail from the office of Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.).
The Christian Science Monitor recently published a series of stories on Cuba's disgruntled youth, women dissidents, blogger Yoani Sánchez and the independent library movement.To read the series, click on this headline.
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
John McCain's Straight Talk Express is far less talkative when it comes to beer.
McCain's campaign is unwilling to directly address questions flowing from InBev's purchase of Anheuser-Busch Cos. in light of his wife, Cindy's, ownership of a large Anheuser-Busch distributorship in Arizona, Hensley and Co., and InBev's investments in Cuba.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
The most bizarre offering that the Rev. Jorge Alejandro has witnessed at Cuba’s most cherished shrine came from the man who bent down and began clipping his toenails. One by one, the man deposited them at the altar, among the many other mementos left by the faithful for the Virgin of El Cobre, widely considered the mother and protector of Cubans.
THE INDEPENDENT
I'm famous. It didn't take long. I had been in Havana for only a few days before strangers began to point at me. "El boxero inglés", they would say. Old men and young children mainly; they would raise their fists, give me a thumbs up, slap me on the back and laugh. At first it was just in the area around the gym where I train, but my fame is spreading.
THE INDEPENDENT
A small brown dog wearing a faded pink T-shirt jogged down an Old Havana street. I decided to follow him. He seemed as good a guide as any. He was in no rush, stopping to sniff the flip-flopped feet of the fat brown girls who sat gossiping on doorsteps, rocking babies, their tight, skimpy vests revealing cleavage you could lose an arm in.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
A government critic's collection includes Bibles, books by Cuban defectors, and positive biographies about Fidel Castro. His collection of movies, mostly documentaries about Cuban human rights violations or nonviolent reformers such as Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr., was taken away by security agents
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