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The World Economic Forum has issued its annual report on the gender gap worldwide, and it has received respectful notice from the usual places (PBS, CNN, The Washington Post). But any report that places the United States below Cuba, the Philippines and South Africa deserves a little skepticism. In fact, the WEF places the U.S. 23rd in the world, below the Scandinavian countries, and those just named, but also below Lesotho. What the heck are they measuring? Well, for one thing, the report examines the difference between men and women within countries, not the absolute welfare of women in one...

A small cargo ship sailed into Havana Bay on Friday with the first maritime shipment from Miami to Cuba in 50 years. The Ana Cecilia carried just one container filled with food and other items, but it was the beginning of what shipper International Port Corp hopes will be a weekly service linking the United States and Cuba, longtime ideological foes. There are other shipping services between the two countries, but none linking Miami, center of the Cuban exile community in the United States and opposition to Cuba's communist government, to Havana. The company was granted a license by the...

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro has mocked the idea that US President Barack Obama could wear a "guayabera" shirt at an upcoming Americas summit in Colombia, while opposing Cuba's presence at the event.

Buddy of mine just heard it on a Dominican radio station Can anyone confirm this?

HAVANA (AP) — It perhaps was not the endorsement President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress were looking for. Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Thursday declared passage of American health care reform "a miracle" and a major victory for Obama's presidency, but couldn't help chide the United States for taking so long to enact what communist Cuba achieved decades ago. "We consider health reform to have been an important battle and a success of his (Obama's) government," Castro wrote in an essay published in state media, adding that it would strengthen the president's hand against lobbyists and "mercenaries."

The Che Guevara-founded, official wire service of the Government of Communist Cuba, La Prensa Latina, reports Mr. Obama's victory tour to Iowa to bolster support for his Obamacare. (Link to article in Spanish above), and HERE.

President Obama took the unusual step Wednesday afternoon of issuing a special denunciation of Cuba's human rights policies, after a year of advocating improved relations after nearly a half-century of political estrangement with the island neighbor. "Instead of embracing an opportunity to enter a new era," Obama said (full text below), "Cuban authorities continue to respond to the aspirations of the Cuban people with a clenched fist." As recently as last summer at a Caribbean summit, Obama and Raul Castro talked separately of opening discussions on a wide range of issues including human rights. The country's semi-retired revolutionary leader, brother...

President Barack Obama has nominated Mari Carmen Aponte to become the next ambassador of El Salvador, a decade after she was forced to withdrawal her name from consideration for a similar post following concerns about alleged ties to Cuba, Newsmax.com reports. A former FBI official told Fox News that Aponte’s 1998 nomination by president Clinton began receiving attention after the foreign relations panel questioned her about a past relationship with Roberto Tamayo, who was alleged to have "possible ties to the Cuban government" and made "repeated trips there." Current White House spokesman Tommy Vietor responded, "as has been previously reported,...

Veteran Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Friday dismissed US President Barack Obama's trip to UN climate change talks in Copenhagen as a "show," and complained that the world's poor will shoulder the burden of any summit agreement. Castro's opinion article, titled "The Moment of Truth," also criticizes the "fascist methods" used by Danish police to put down protesting environmental activists. "It is already evident that a great catastrophe threatens our species," wrote Castro, 82. Perhaps the worst part of the summit "is blind selfishness of a rich and privileged minority that intents to impose the bulk of the necessary sacrifices...

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban musicians are returning to perform in the United States after a long freeze on such visits, seizing the opportunity of friendlier overtures toward Havana from U.S. President Barack Obama. Well-known Cuban musicians are being granted visas to perform at U.S. venues in a sign that Obama's administration is quietly promoting cultural contacts as part of a strategy of warmer "people to people" ties with the Communist-run island. The more relaxed atmosphere between the Cold War era enemies is perhaps most evident in the arts, which in the past has provided a bridge between the two neighbors...

Cuba began its biggest military maneuvers in five years on Thursday, saying they were needed to prepare for a possible invasion by the United States. Despite a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations and assurances last week by President Barack Obama that the United States has no intention of invading the island 90 miles from Florida, Cuba's state-run press quoted military leaders as saying there "exists a real possibility of a military aggression against Cuba." The war games, which are being called "Bastion 2009," also will get the military ready to deal with social unrest the United States may try to foment...

Nearly 50 years after a botched US-directed invasion of Cuba, the communist nation said Saturday it is holding a military exercise next week to boost preparedness against any future US attack. "It is a necessity of the first order given the political-military situation that now defines relations between Cuba and the empire," Major General Leonardo Andollo warned, referring to the United States. He told the official Granma newspaper that the "Bastion-2009" exercises will "raise the deterrent capacity to prevent a military confrontation, under the principle that there is no better way to win a war than by avoiding it."

Americans shouldn’t worry. Although, the economy is diminishing, jobs are dwindling, soldiers are dying, and a new health care plan might just restructure the nation and cost the taxpayers billions of dollars, our Commander-in-Chief is looking out for us. In fact, he’s in China right now—improving our relations and receiving a hero’s welcome. But, does he deserve it? After a rocky rating month, President Obama’s presidential approval rating has stabilized, states Rasmussen Reports. 28% of American voters strongly approve of his performance, and 38% strongly disapprove. However, 48%, the highest number this year, give Obama poor rankings in the way...

MADRID - U.S. President Barack Obama asked Spain to send Cuba a message about reform when he met Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero earlier this month, the newspaper El Pais reported on Sunday. Six days after their meeting on October 13 at the White House, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visited the Caribbean island and met President Raul Castro. "Have (Moratinos) tell the Cuban authorities we understand that change can't happen overnight, but down the road, when we look back at this time, it should be clear that now is when those changes began," Obama told Zapatero, according...

Trade: Colombia got another brushoff Tuesday, when Commerce Secretary Gary Locke pronounced its free trade pact dead for the year because Washington is too busy with health care. Why doesn't Cuba ever hear that? Speaking at the sidelines of a conference in Chile, Locke told Dow Jones: "It's pretty doubtful that the pact will be ratified this year, although the Obama administration is pushing forward with Colombia, Korea and Panama." Yeah, sure. Pushing and pushing, it's all we've heard about from this crew. But the only visible moves on trade have a string of protectionist measures to make Big Labor...

A senior American diplomat has held high-level talks with the Cuban government in Havana, state department officials are reported to have said. The talks between the two nations were the first of their kind in years, the Associated Press news agency reports. State department official Bisa Williams held the unannounced talks with Cuba's deputy foreign minister during a visit to Cuba earlier this month, AP says. A US trade embargo on Cuba remains, but there are signs relations are easing. Earlier this month, Ms Williams, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, was part of a US...

US President Barack Obama has welcomed plans for a massive but controversial concert in Havana on Sunday by Miami-based music star Juanes. Obama told US Spanish language network Univision that the concert, which is expected to draw around half a million Cubans, could help improve ties with Cuba. Obama's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had met the Colombian singer before he left for Cuba, with both drawing criticism from Miami's Cuban exile community for a performance they say will legitimize the island's communist regime. "My understanding is that he's a terrific musician. He puts on a very good concert," Obama...

HAVANA, September 18 (RIA Novosti) - Modernization of the Soviet-made military equipment and training of Cuban military personnel will be the focus of Russian-Cuban military cooperation in the near future, the chief of the Russian General Staff said on Friday.

The Obama Administration received political support from an unexpected source when retired Cuban dictator Fidel Castro denounced the “rightwing racists opposing this visionary leader” and urged all Americans with “progressive values to rally behind their new President.” While many Democratic Party leaders were uncertain that this endorsement would necessarily be advantageous, Representative Diane Watson (D-Calif) had no doubts. “President Castro is one of the brightest leaders I’ve ever met,” Watson said. “He gave his country a great health care system. If there’s anyone’s advice we should be taking on this issue it’s his.” Watson argued that “Fidel’s support coming on...

HAVANA (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is trying to make positive changes in the United States, but is being fought at every turn by right-wingers who hate him because he is black, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday. In an unusually conciliatory column in the state-run media, Castro said Obama had inherited many problems from his predecessor, George W. Bush, and was trying to resolve them. But the "powerful extreme right won't be happy with anything that diminishes their prerogatives in the slightest way."