martes, 19 de mayo de 2009

Cuban-Azerbaijani Intergovernmental Commission Underway in Baku

HAVANA, Cuba. Cuba’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Ricardo Guerrero Blanco, arrived on Monday in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, heading the Caribbean nation’s delegation to the second session of the Cuban-Azerbaijani Intergovernmental Commission that began yesterday and concludes today in Baku.

Guerrero was welcomed by Dr. Nazim Samadov, Secretary of the Commission for the Azerbaijani side and also Director of Cultural Programs and International Bodies of the Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism.

Also present was the Cuban Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Marcelo Caballero Torres.

According to the Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism, Abulfaz Garayev, his country plans to participate in developing oil fields in Cuba in line with a draft cooperation agreement. “The accord is expected to be signed in the near future,” the Minister said.

Last year, Cuba produced around 4 million tons of oil, while Azerbaijan’s oil production reached 45 million tons.

On Monday, the sides also discussed cooperation in medicine, food production, culture and tourism.

The first meeting of the commission took place in Havana in November 2007.

(Celebran comisión mixta Cuba-Azerbaiján)

Casa de las Américas Mourns the Death of Mario Benedetti

HAVANA, Cuba. With the following note, Havana's Casa de las Américas cultural institution joins the organizations, friends and intellectuals from around the world in mourning the death of Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti on Sunday:

Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti has just died; sad news for Latin American literature. In the mid 1940s Benedetti began to weave a vast and diverse work of not only the poetry and narrative that would captivate millions of readers, but also of essays, plays, critiques, and
news articles.

Captivating, incisive, and controversial, Benedetti had the capacity to attract crowds wherever he brought his verses and to generate heated intellectual and political debates. His dozens of books are among the most read in Latin American literature of the second half of the 20th
century.

Our friend Mario Benedetti has just died. The news is painful for those who could always count on his voice and solidarity. Since his first visit to Cuba in 1966, his commitment to the construction of a new society was exemplary.

His strong convictions threw him into exile (a good part of which he spent in Havana). He never hesitated to defend his ideas, which were also our ideas, in all the forums he attended. He was hounded for his support of Cuba, but he never gave up for a single moment the support of a Revolution he considered his own.

Our very close friend Mario Benedetti has just died. The news caused us great consternation, to use a term Mario himself engraved in his poem to Che. Mario was not only a great writer and a great friend in solidarity, but also a tireless worker of the Casa de las Americas -a task to which he would also bring his beloved Luz- ever since his first visit when he participated as a jury of the Casa's Prize for Literature.

He became a member of the Cooperation Committee of the Casa's magazine and later found the Center for Literary Research in 1967. He worked for many intense years at the Casa and helped to shape its essence, which it maintains today. Casa de las Americas has published several of his
titles and released recordings of his poetry recitals.

In a sad coincidence, Mario leaves us when Casa de las Americas is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Nevertheless, his voice, his memory, is books and that other great work of his, the Casa itself, remain with us.

(Lamenta Casa de las Américas muerte de Mario Benedetti)

Homage to Martí in anniversary 114 of his fall in combat

San Antonio de los Baños,may 19. The fall in combat of José Martí in Dos Ríos, had happened for 114 years, it is remembered in the Martian Forest of the Ariguanabo, where are placed today floral offerings by the date.

The historical Dos Ríos can in fact be observed in this place represented to the end of a journey of 194 kilometers and 38 days, which begins with the landing of Martí next to Maximum Gómez and other patriots with Beaches of Cajobabo, April 11 1895.

The mark is represented by wooden stumps, where the 27 camps and an image of him picked up in campaign clothes, as well as the delivery to him of bigger General's grades and the meeting of The Marjoram, next to the Generalissimo and the Place General Lieutenant Antonio Maceo.

His memories captured in the Forest, center badge of the Society José Martí, is the 54 vegetable species mentioned by the Cuban National Hero in its Newspaper of Campaign, and the Tribune of Our America erected in stones.

Open one day like today, 15 years ago, by Rafael Rodríguez Ortiz, that institution constitutes homage paradigm to the Teacher, and it is visited every year by national people's thousands and desirous foreigners of knowing on its life and work, and other aspects of the history of Cuba.
(Félix Milián)

Territorial office of Normalization in Camagüey to the outpost in the saving

Camagüey. The territorial Office of Normalization in Camagüey highlights among the labor communities of the Union of the Science where an intense program of energy payees' saving is applied.

Adalberto Lugo, secretary of the union section in the entity, remarked that like part of that plan was substituted the electric accountant by one more efficient and activists designated for checking the appropriate use of the electricity in the institution.

The airs conditioning are also disconnected in the established schedule, the pumping of water takes place THREE hours to the day like maximum and the employment of fuel is optimized and lubricant in the means of transport.

The actions of energy saving that are carried out in the Territorial Office of Normalization in Camagüey, constitute a concrete way of fulfilling one of the main indications made to the labor class by the Power station of Workers of Cuba. (Yamylé Fernández Rodríguez)

Artistic group Maraguán exhibits its chore in folkloric festival of Chile

Artistic group Maraguán Camagüey, may 19. - Multiple presentations characterize the performance of the Artistic Group Maraguán, of the University of Camagüey, in the II International Festival of Folklore “From the End of the World” during the current May in several cities, theaters and Chilean squares.

The community, one of the maximum exponents of Cuban fan's movement offered, by means of Chilean national television, fragments of its show Homage, while in the theater “Galpón Victor Jara” he danced “For the fields of my Cuba.”

The members of the Maraguán shared scene with the Folkloric Ballet of Chile “Bafochi”, in the commune of Pomanque, while in the inaugural parade of the event, in the municipality of The Serene, showed the rhythm and the Cuban happiness, when moving for the streets of the town, next to other groupings of several participant countries in the Festival.

In other scenaries, as the municipal Theater of Valparaíso, the community of Paihuano, and the olympic gym of the University of the Frontier, the group of Camagüey was very applauded by its shows “Trinitarian Congo” and Cuban.”

In the elegance closes of the II Festival of Folclore “From the end of the World”, the boys of Maraguán offered their show “Caribbean I am” and participated in the mass for the 22 years of artistic life of the Ballet Chilean Folklorico, in the Carmen's Basilica, in the sanctuary of Maipú, Monument dedicated to the heroes of the independence in the Andean nation. (Raysa Mestril Gutiérrez).

Cuban Scientist to Hold Meeting on Hepatitis Diagnosis

HAVANA, Cuba.The Cuban Hepatology Society will hold this Tuesday, World Hepatitis Day, a scientific meeting where the Cuban strategies on the diagnosis and treatment of Hepatitis B and C are to be discussed.

At the meeting, to be held at the Chateau Miramar Hotel, in this city, the participants will analyze a proposal for the development of a comprehensive treatment program for patients suffering from hepatic cirrhosis ,a disease, which is the main complication in these infections, reported the Infomed website.

According to statistics, over 500 million people all over the world are infected with either the B or C variants, and most of them are not aware of it. In Cuba, cirrhosis is the tenth cause of death.

Thanks to the wide coverage of Cuba’s health system and its government’s political will, the implementation of effective programs is a reality, thus allowing the reduction of mortality as a result of this disease and similar ones.

(Realizarán encuentro sobre diagnóstico de la Hepatitis)

Cuban Javelin Thrower Wins in Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix

HAVANA, Cuba. Cuban Osleydis Menendez, Athens 2004 Olympic champion, won the gold medal this Sunday in the javelin event at the Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix, in Brazil.

Menendez showed she is recovering her shape and threw the implement to the 62.74 meter mark, enough to overcome her team-mate Yanet Cruz (62.65) and Romanian Mónica Stoian (59.91).

Meanwhile, triple jumper David Giralt, fourth place in Beijing Olympics, reached the top of the podium with a 17.39 meter jump, 20 centimeters more than Yoandri Betanzos and 28 than World and Olympic champion Portuguese Nelson Evora.

In the long jump event, Ibrahím Camejo, from Cuba, won with a discreet 7.93 leap, trailed by Namibian Stefhan Louw with 7.81, and Wilfredo Martínez (CUB- 7.80). In the women’s event Yargelis Savigne, who leads the world ranking this season in triple jump, finished in the fourth
position with 6.59 meters.

The Cuban athletes will compete again on May 20th in Urbelandia, in Brazil.

(Triunfa Osleydis en Grand Prix de Atletismo Río de Janeiro)
(Jesús Arrieta Alfonso)

Cuban Citrus Industry Diversifies its Production

The Ceballos citrus industry started operating a new production line for pineapple juice as part of a program to diversify its output.

This work was completed with the setting up of a press that fell into disuse in the Isla de la Juventud municipality. The factory engineers made some improvements to the press, thus enabling them to produce plain and concentrated juices.

Domingo Escalante Pérez, assistant director of Ciego de Avila Citrus Industrial Enterprise said that over 180 tons of pineapple harvested in the Villa Clara and Matanzas provinces have already been processed.

Escalante pointed out that this equipment enables them to squeeze approximately 8 tons per hour and make full use of the fruit, while the waste is used to feed cattle, especially dairy cows.

This idea came into practice due to the growth of crop areas developed in the Ciego de Avila province, which was 268 hectares in 2008 and will be greater this year.

The first crops sown last year should start producing during the present year’s second semester.

The Ceballos industry is ready to process other fruits such as oranges, grapefruit, lemons, tangerines, guava, mangoes and papaya amongst others.

Tanzanian Newspaper Asks Obama to Free the Cuban Five

HAVANA, Cuba.The Tanzanian English newspaper, The African, published an article on the case of the five Cubans unfairly imprisoned in the US.

The author of the article, Philbert Kawezi, gives an overview of the tangled judicial process against the Five in Miami and argues that every just person should demand a new trial outside of Florida and call for the immediate and unconditional releases of these five men.

The article asks US President Barak Obama to grant a fair trial for the Cuban Five and makes a call to the international community to support the cause.

Internationally known as the Cuban Five or the Miami Five, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino and Rene Gonzalez have been imprisoned for more than 10 years now after they warned their country about terrorist actions being organized and carried out by anti-Cuban groups in Florida.

Kawezi says the Five, like so many other Cuban soldiers, doctors, teachers, builders and consultants who have helped Africa, are a part of Africa: "We can not ignore the call of our liberators."

(Piden en Tanzania a Barack Obama que libere a los Cinco)

Cuba-Guinea Bissau Joint Commission Meeting Concludes in Bissau

HAVANA, Cuba. Guinea Bissau Foreign Minister Maria Adiatu Nandigna spoke at the closing of the 14th Cuba-Guinea Bissau Joint Commission meeting that took place at the Foreign Ministry in the African nation.

Maria Adiatu Nandigna highlighted the achievements of the previous commission and reaffirmed the political will of both countries to extend cooperation to other spheres.

During her speech before members of the government and representatives from the press, the minister was categorical in reaffirming her country's condemnation to the US blockade against Cuba and its demand for the immediate release of the five Cuban antiterrorists unjustly incarcerated in US jails.

Maria Adiatu Nandigna repeated her government's unconditional support of Cuba and promised to continue seeking bilateral, trilateral and multilateral formulas that allow for the fulfilment of commitments agreed on during this meeting.

She sent greetings to Cuban president Raúl Castro and wished long life to revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

Cuban Vice Minister Ramón Ripoll said that despite its financial limitations Cuba continues to be ready to support Guinea Bissau in its development program.

Ripoll thanked the government of Guinea Bissau for its political stance, in support of Cuba in its struggle against the US blockade and in favor of the release of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unjustly imprisoned in US jails since 1998.

Also attending the meeting were Cuban Ambassador Pedro Doña and Guinea Bissau Ambassador Abel Coehlo.


(Concluye Comisión Mixta Cuba-Guinea Bissau)