EL PAIS

Report: Anonymous tip let to Carlos Lage's ouster (Spanish)

Un anónimo provocó los seguimientos de la seguridad cubana al representante de los intereses vascos en La Habana, en paradero desconocido desde su arresto en febrero

REUTERS

Brazil to help finance Cuban port project

Brazil said on Thursday it would give Cuba up to $300 million in credits to start rebuilding the island's port of Mariel, better known as the site of a 1980 Cuban exodus to the United States

AP

Cuba acknowledges top pitcher's desertion

Cuba has acknowledged the desertion of baseball pitcher Aroldis Chapman, a week after he walked away from a tournament in the Netherlands.

OSLO FREEDOM FORUM

Speech on human rights aid to Cuba

Speech by Marc Wachtenheim, director of the Cuba Development Initiative at the Pan American Development Foundation, overseeing a m-ulti-million dollar development program. CDI brings together hemispheric leaders to implement strategies in collaboration with the Cuban people to advance their democratic, economic, and social development by joining international financial resources with Cuba’s human resources. .

EFE

International Press Institute Calls for Release of Jailed Journalists in Cuba

The International Press Institute called Tuesday for the “immediate release” of the 22 journalists jailed in Cuba and warned of the risk of downplaying the importance of the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and the press.

REUTERS

Land leases to private Cuban farmers on the rise

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.

REUTERS

Cuba's Fidel Castro honored with a reggaeton song

Since he swept into power 50 years ago, Cuba's Fidel Castro has been honored in poems, movies and paintings and now in reggaeton, a form of music widely popular among Cuban youth but not island leaders.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

New York, Keys Draw Cuban-Born Musician

The musicians in the two-time Grammy-nominated band Tiempo Libre were born, raised and classically trained at Cuban conservatories but now make their home in Miami. Focusing on timba, a sizzling combination of Latin jazz and Cuban sound, the group has been touring the U.S. to support its latest CD, "Bach in Havana." We talked to pianist and music director Jorge Gómez, 37, about touring with the band.

EFE

U.S. military chaplain says Mass in Cuba (Spanish)

REUTERS

Reggaeton fever shakes up Cuba's culture

With little official support or air time on state-controlled radio, the songs Cuban reggaeton artists record in makeshift studios lined with egg cartons for sound insulation are mostly transmitted though homemade CDs and on computer flash memory sticks.

THE WASHINGTON POST

EDITORIAL | A Cuban dissident deflected

Why doesn't President Obama have time for Cuba's pro-democracy opposition?

HARVARD MAGAZINE

Hello from Havana

Nuanced but unmistakable stirrings of change in Cuba

WASHINGTON JEWISH WEEK

Cuban Jews lukewarm about thaw in U.S. relations

Some Jews in Cuba are greeting with caution the recent thaw in relations between their island nation and the United States.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Honduras and the Cuba exception

Latin America's leaders are right to condemn the coup in Honduras -- but wrong to give Havana a pass on democracy.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

AP photo essay on Cuba's low infant mortality rate

Associated Press photo essay on Cuba's low infant mortality rate

THE VANCOUVER SUN

Cuba's 'rolling museums' could close forever

Elvis Presley croons "All Shook Up" from the CD player as Florentino Marin wipes down his 1955 Buick Century sedan on a central Havana street. "It's always been said that Buicks and Cadillacs were the Kings of the Road," Marin says proudly, admiring the paint job on his two-tone, chrome-plated taxi as it glistened under a few drops of steamy morning rain.

THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE

Why and How to Lift the U.S. Embargo on Cuba

Most Latin American leaders slammed the 47-year-old U.S. embargo of Cuba at the mid-April Summit of the Americas in Trinidad. Fidel Castro hadn’t been invited, so he ranted about the “blockade”—and President Obama—from Havana. This all sounds familiar, but there is an important new twist today. The Obama team, and shifts in Cuban American opinion, give hope that we may finally move toward eliminating the embargo—if we can jettison unrealistic demands and expectations.

IPS

CUBA: Women in the pulpit

Izet Samá has no regrets about her decision to devote every waking hour to her mission as pastor of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church, guiding a small congregation in the Cuban province of Havana.

EL PAIS

Why Cuba purged 3 top officials (Spanish)

Spanish newspaper El Pais reports on the reasons behind the purge of three senior Cuban officials earlier this year

GLOBALPOST

Cubans face dire economic formula

The Cuban government's call for energy conservation appears to reflect the country's economic strategy under President Raul Castro, who assumed Cuba's leadership more than a year ago. Rather than follow the path of market-based liberalization reforms that China and Vietnam's communist governments have taken, Cuba intends to weather the crisis by slimming its bureaucracy and exhorting citizens to conserve resources and produce more.

USA TODAY

U.S. ports set to deal with Cuba

Some U.S. port cities are putting plans in place to increase travel and trade with Cuba — just in case relations with the communist island begin to thaw.

BLOOMBERG

Cuba Can Service U.S. Tourists If Ban Lifted, Official Says

Cuba's tourism industry will have enough capacity for the surge of American travelers expected should U.S. lawmakers lift restrictions on visits to the island, said Miguel Figueras, an adviser at Cuba's tourism ministry.

WIRED

On Cuba's potential tech boom

I visited Cuba a few years ago and was surprised. Everyone was smart, skilled, and seemed hungry for opportunities to improve their lives because they'd spent decades under Fidel Castro's human-rights-crushing thumb. Now that President Obama is talking about opening up trade, Cuba experts predict that the country could explode with creativity and entrepreneurial innovation.

CBS6

Company says trade with Cuba could affect Richmond jobs

President Barack Obama has talked about lifting this country's trade embargo with Cuba and if it happens, one company says they'll be forced to layoff more than 100 workers in the Richmond area. The cigar-maker Swedish Match has its North American headquarters in Richmond and it says opening the U.S. market to Cuban cigars may jeopardize 120 jobs unless Americans play hardball with Communist Cuba.