miércoles, 25 de marzo de 2009

Raul Castro at Ceremony for 50th Birthday of Cuba´s Film Institute

HAVANA, Cuba.(acn) Cuban President Raul Castro attends the ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC), underway at Havana´s Karl Marx Theater.

The ceremony included the premiere of the Cuban movie “Ciudad en Rojo” (City in Red) by moviemaker Rebeca Chavez; the film will be screened on Cuban movie theaters starting April 2.

After 1959, the Cuban movie industry became one of the major cultural achievements of the Revolution and it also encouraged the development of the New Latin American Cinema Movement.

(Asiste Raul al acto por aniversario 50 del ICAIC )

Safer Houses for Hurricane Victims in Cuba

NUEVA GERONA, Cuba, March 25 (acn) Some 510 hurricane-victim families in Isla de la Juventud municipality in Cuba will benefit with safer and more comfortable apartments once the transformation of former educational centers into housing buildings is concluded.

Ana Isa Delgado, First Secretary of the Communist party in the municipality, highlighted the good pace of the program, in which those to benefit are participating as well, in order to look after the quality of the finish.

“The purpose is to give a definite answer to people affected by the total destruction of their houses after the passing of the hurricanes,” underscored the official.

Also, there are 160 apartments planned to be built using the Sandino prefabricated system. Some 20 have already been assigned for building for future dwellers, the same amount were assigned to the Revolutionary Army Forces, and 25 of them will be built by workers.

The construction forces in the territory are working on the completion of renovation work on the partially destroyed houses, the area lagging behind the most in the area, with only 44 fully repaired houses.

The party leader urged the population to keep up their optimism and trust, and reminded them that almost all the Cuban territory was affected by the hurricanes.

Out of some 25,000 registered houses in this municipality, 18,805 of them suffered some kind of damage from the hurricanes that battered the territory in 2008.

(Beneficiarán a damnificados con inmuebles más seguros)

Two Cuban Players in 2009 WBC All-Star Team

HAVANA, Cuba, March 25 (acn) Two Cuban players were included in the All-Star team of the recently concluded 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC).

A panel of specialized reporters who covered the event chose Frederich Cepeda and Yoennis Cespedes as two of the three All-Star outfielders along with Japanese Norichita Aoki.

According to the official website of the WBC, the only players that were chosen unanimously were Cepeda and first baseman Tae Kyun Kim of South Korea.

Other players included in the All-Star team were Puerto Rican catcher Ivan Rodriguez, Venezuelan second baseman Celestino Lopez, South Korean third baseman Bum Ho Lee and American short-stop Jimmy Rollins. South Korean Hyun Soo Kim was the All-Star designated hitter while Japanese Daisuke Matsuzaka – the tournament’s MVP - and Hisashi Iwakuma as well as South Korean Jung Keun Bong were the All-Star pitchers.

(Dos peloteros cubanos en el Todos Estrellas del Clásico)

ALBA Cultural Prize Awarded to Cuban Writer Roberto Fernández Retamar

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 25 (acn) Cuban poet and essayist Roberto Fernández Retamar, President of Havana’s Casa de las Américas cultural institution, has been granted the 2008 Arts and Letters Prize given by ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for The Americas.

Also receiving the prize was Bolivian filmmaker Jorge Sajinés, the Venezuelan Culture Minister Héctor Soto announced on Tuesday, reports the Prensa Latina news agency.

The ALBA Prize for Arts and Letters was created for the purpose of acknowledging and highlighting living creators who have continuously devoted their lives and work to enrich the continent’s cultural heritage.

We’re talking about “creators with original contributions in any genre, who have also supported cultural emancipation and decolonization”, stresses the jury’s report.

This is the second time that ALBA, by way of its Grand National ALBA Cultural Project, has granted this prize, consisting of a statuette and 75,000 dollars.

The winners will be presented with the prize during the next summit of this regional organization, to be held in Venezuela.

Awarded in the previous edition were centenarian Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and the almost nonagenarian Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti.


(Gana Fernández Retamar Premio cultural del ALBA)

Alfredo Guevara Receives Cuba's Highest Distinction

HAVANA, Cuba, March 25 (acn) Alfredo Guevara, a founder of the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC), received on Tuesday night the 'Jose Marti' Order, the highest distinction granted by the Cuban State, for his extraordinary merits and contribution to Cuban culture.

Guevara received the decoration from the hands of Cuban President Raul Castro during a gala held at the Karl Marx Theater to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ICAIC.

The Cuban leader also granted ICAIC a special recognition for its contribution to the work of the Revolution, the preservation of the historic memory of the nation and its work in support of Latin American integration.

Special diplomas were also granted to a group of ICAIC founders such as filmmakers Julio Garcia Espinosa, Jose Massip and Enrique Pineda Barnet; producer Camilo Vives; editor and documentary maker Gloria Arguelles; and scenography technician Teodoro Castillo.

Present in the gala was Culture Minister Abel Prieto who recalled that one of the first decisions of the triumphant Cuban Revolution in 1959 was the creation of ICAIC.

The gala included the premiere of the Cuban film 'Ciudad en rojo' (City in Red) by filmmaker Rebeca Chavez.


(Condecora Raúl a Alfredo Guevara con la Orden José Martí)

World Day against Tuberculosis Celebrated in Cuba

MANZANILLO, Cuba, Mar 25 (acn) With the lowest index of prevalence of the disease in Latin America, Cuba celebrated on Tuesday the World Day against Tuberculosis. The main activity was held in this city of eastern Granma province.

In one of the 48 municipalities with high risk of incidence of the disease in the country, doctors, health promoters, students and youngsters met to continue expanding people’s education on the
consequences of this suffering.

Part of the activity was a recreational and educational festival called “En Salud” (In Health), which included games, distribution of prophylactic material, and the awarding of participants in literary and art contests inspired by the prevention of the scourge.

Likewise, pioneer children from various secondary schools shared their knowledge on the symptoms, ways of infection, preventative measures, treatment, and characteristics of the disease.

An official from the National Center for Health Promotion and Education, Mailín Cuba, told ACN that specialists from the entire archipelago will be meeting for a scientific event on the disease until Thursday, at the Celia Sánchez Manduley Hospital .

The director of Granma’s Provincial Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology, Kenia González, highlighted that the Cuban state guarantees the human and material resources necessary to fight tuberculosis, and that the greatest challenge is to sensitize and educate people in order to
eliminate the main risk factors.


(Celebró Cuba Día Mundial de Lucha contra la Tuberculosis)

Japanese Sculpture Donated for 80th Anniversary of Cuba-Japan Relations

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 25 (acn) Japanese artist Ryuzo Kawano has donated in Tokyo one of his sculptures, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between his country and Cuba.

Kawano gave the work of art to Cuba’s ambassador in Japan, José Fernández de Cossío, so it can be placed at the diplomatic mission of the archipelago in that Asian nation.

The piece depicts the face of a woman, with a mystical touch, whose hair is made up by sheets of a book and a boat, interpretative of the exchange of cultures between the two insular countries, explained the artist.

Identical copies of the sculpture will be donated to the Japanese Embassy and the Asian Centre in Havana. The latter, is a reference centre for Asian culture, located in Old Havana’s historic area, declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site.

Ryuzo Kawano, who is now visiting the archipelago along with other colleagues, will exhibit his sculpture at the Asia Centre, as a collateral exhibition of the 10th Havana Biennial, under the title “The Asian, the Cuban, and the Japanese”.

He will also hold exchanges with students from the capital’s Institute of Higher Arts.

(Donan obra por aniversario de relaciones Cuba-Japón)