For the first time since 1976, Cuba’s president is not a Castro
When the leaders of North and South Korea reached across the Military Demarcation Line to shake hands, they symbolically united the peninsula
Miguel Díaz-Canel, a Communist Party loyalist, is expected to succeed Raúl Castro as president of Cuba, but will this change bring prosperity?
President Zuma attended the funeral of former Cuban president Fidel Castro, where he delivered a graceful tribute.
"I have never been afraid of death," Castro said in 2002. "I have never been concerned about death."
United States President Barack Obama makes a rare visit to Cuba this week. This after his December 2014 announcement of renewed relations with Cuba.
Cuba’s foreign minister takes the hugely symbolic step of raising his country’s flag at a newly designated embassy in Washington.
In the first round of historic talks between the two countries, the US vowed to continue giving Cubans safe haven, despite Cuba’s objections.
It was a small gesture: a handshake between Barack Obama and Raul Castro. It’s just what Nelson Mandela would have wanted, but does it amount to more?
US President Barack Obama has shaken hands with Cuba’s Raul Castro, a rare gesture between the two ideologically opposed nations.
The 1950s Cuban revolution led to an egalitarian society with many admirable features.
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/ 24 December 2011
President Raul Castro has announced his intentions to release about 3 000 prisoners for ‘humanitarian reasons’ and reform onerous travel laws.
Cuba’s General Leopoldo Cintra Frias, a hero of military campaigns in Angola and Ethiopia, has been named as the country’s new defence minister.
Raul Castro has proposed term limits for Cuba’s rulers, including himself, in an unprecedented effort to rejuvenate the island’s political leadership.
Hopes of a major shake-up at a landmark Communist Party congress in Cuba have been dashed as the old guard kept a vice-like grip on power.
Cuba’s President, Raul Castro, has offered to talk to the United States and ease half a century of enmity.
A rights activist says most of Cuba’s political prisoners would rather serve out terms than be part of an exchange for spies imprisoned in the US.
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/ 14 November 2008
Ruusian President Dmitry Medvedev will visit Cuba later this month, in Russia’s latest move to fortify relations with US adversaries.
A Cuban group painted a grim picture of the human rights situation in the island nation, saying in a report it was ”very unfavourable”.
Cuba’s gay community celebrated unprecedented openness — and high-ranking political alliances — with a government-backed campaign against homophobia on Saturday. The meeting at a convention centre in Havana’s Vedado district may have been the largest gathering of openly gay activists to date on the communist-run island.
The only time Cuba’s Fidel Castro is known to have played golf was in 1961, in a stunt thumbing his nose at the United States. Now that Fidel has handed over power to his brother, Raul, Communist Cuba is setting aside any ideological objections and is embracing golf, the most capitalist of sports.
Johan Vega knows the Havana Golf Club well. Too well. He has played every bunker, green and fairway thousands of times and the course has become monotonous. Golfers like to tackle different courses but the club is Havana’s sole golf course and Vega (37) is Havana’s only golf instructor.
It took Fidel Castro four decades to accept limited economic reform in communist Cuba, but it has taken his brother, Raul Castro, the President since February, just weeks to launch a flurry of changes. On Tuesday, Cubans lined up outside stores to gawk at, and enjoy the new right to buy, appliances such as pressure cookers, DVDs and electric bikes.
Cubans for the first time can check into the island’s swank tourist hotels that until now had been exclusively reserved for foreigners, as President Raul Castro continues to soften a half-century of communist restrictions. Citizens here also have access for the first time to rental cars, which until midnight on Sunday had been available only to foreign customers.
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/ 23 February 2008
Hillary Clinton on Friday denied she was contemplating defeat for her White House bid, after her wistful tribute to Barack Obama in a debate was seen by some observers as an admission of looming failure. Clinton is reeling from her Democratic rival’s 11 straight wins in nominating contests.
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/ 19 February 2008
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has wished Fidel Castro a long and happy retirement following the Cuban leader’s decision not to return to office as president. ”Comrade Fidel holds a special place in South African hearts because of his decision to deploy thousands of soldiers to help our African liberation struggles,” sais the trade union.
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/ 19 February 2008
Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday that he will not return to lead the country as president or commander-in-chief, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution. Castro (81) said he would not seek a new presidential term when the National Assembly meets on February 24.
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/ 16 January 2008
Hours after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro was in ”impeccable” health, Castro told local media he was not fit for public speaking. Lula raised eyebrows and quick questions about Castro’s political future, saying after a long discussion on Tuesday: ”I think Fidel is ready to take on his political role in Cuba.”
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/ 25 December 2007
Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has gained weight, is exercising twice daily and is in full control of his mental faculties in a signal of his recovery, his brother Raul Castro said on Monday. Fidel Castro, who took power in a 1959 revolution, handed over temporarily to Raul Castro in July 2006 after undergoing stomach surgery.
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/ 18 December 2007
Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public for 16 months, suggested on Monday he might give up his formal leadership posts — the first time he has spoken of his possible retirement since he fell ill. Castro, who took power in a 1959 revolution, handed over temporarily to his brother Raul Castro in July 2006.
Forty years after the death of Ernesto ”Che” Guevara, the turbulent life of Cuba’s revolutionary hero continues to inspire films and books, while his stoic image and self-sacrifice have become iconic for leftists worldwide. His legacy remains as vivid today in communist-ruled Cuba as it was, with schoolchildren still instructed to pledge each morning that: ”Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che.”