/REPEAT/ PETROLEUM: Embargo Prevents US from Seeking Cuban Crude

The United States-imposed trade embargo against Cuba leaves US petroleum companies out of the oil exploration race in the island's territorial waters in the Gulf of Mexico, an area experts say has great production potential.

PETROLEUM: Embargo Prevents US from Seeking Cuban Crude

The United States-imposed trade embargo against Cuba leaves US petroleum companies out of the oil exploration race in the island's territorial waters in the Gulf of Mexico, an area experts say has great production potential.

POLITICS/CUBA-US: Migration Laws Complicate Elian Case/UPDATED REPEAT/

The United States law that automatically - though not immediately - grants residency to Cubans who set foot on US soil is pushing the US-Cuba dispute about the custody of the shipwrecked boy, Elián González, well beyond the limits of this specific case.

POLITICS-CUBA: Opposition to Seek Backing at G-77 Summit

Representatives from Cuba's illegal political opposition are confident they will have the chance to meet with delegations from the Group of 77 - made up of 133 nations from the developing South - who are to meet next month in the Cuban capital.

PETROLEUM: Venezuela Seeks Partnership with Cuba

Venezuela intends to be the second Latin American country, after Brazil, to invest in Cuba's oil industry, which this year hopes to see its production levels reach three million tonnes of crude.

ECONOMY-CUBA: In Search of Partners to Develop Fisheries

Cuba is looking for foreign partners to help develop its fishing industry, as part of a 10-year programme designed to achieve more rational exploitation of the island's stocks and to increase aquaculture production of freshwater and saltwater species.

TOURISM-CUBA: Ex-CIA Agent Creates On-Line Agency

A former member of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Philip Agee, has set up an Internet business promoting tourism to Cuba, with the aim of creating a small breach in the nearly four decades-old US trade embargo against the island.

POLITICS-CUBA: Church and Gov’t Defend Rights of Elian’s Father

The Catholic Church of Cuba asserted its position - which coincides with that of the Fidel Castro government - in the case of the shipwrecked boy, Elián González, which is scheduled to be heard Feb 22 in United States federal court.

DEVELOPMENT: G-77 Summit to Hammer Out Common Positions

The Cuban government hopes the summit of the Group of 77 (G-77) scheduled for Apr 10-14 in Havana will meet with success in hashing out common positions on the foreign debt and other pressing problems facing the developing South.

LITERATURE-CUBA: Kid’s Books Star at Havana Fair

Children's literature has been the hardest hit by the economic crisis, sharply cutting back Cuba's publishing activity, but it has been given the seat of honour at this year's international book fair in the island's capital, promoted as the ideal stage for exchanges between local and foreign publishing houses.

SUGAR-CUBA: Diversification Gives Key Sector New Lease on Life

The sugar industry is making a bid to maintain its strategic standing in the Cuban economy through basic changes in production, including the development of by-products.

PROFILE-CUBA: The Phoenix of Cuban Track and Field

They called her the phoenix of track and field when she won the gold medal at the 1995 World Championships, two years after an accident had left her near death.

ENVIRONMENT-CUBA: Island Now Home to 6 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) declared two more Cuban national parks as Biosphere Reserves, expanding to six the island's total ecosystems with this designation.

TRADE-CUBA: US Agribusiness Mission Scouts Business Opportunities

A group of agribusiness representatives from the United States ended Thursday a four-day working visit to Cuba, where they studied possibilities of doing business with this Caribbean island nation in the future.

ECONOMY-CUBA: Government Upbeat on Six Percent GDP Growth

The Cuban government is waxing optimistic over this year's growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But economists warn that more than a decade of steady growth will be needed to return to the conditions enjoyed prior to 10 years of crisis.

POLITICS-CUBA/US: Quarrels on US Immigration Law Mar Talks

A United States law that gives Cuban immigrants priority over those coming from other countries continues to be the major sticking point in bilateral migration negotiations.

CUBA-US: Fate of Shipwrecked Boy Strains Relations

The future of a five-year-old Cuban boy, caught up in an illegal immigrant smuggling case, pits Cuba and the United States against each other just two weeks before they are to begin a new round of migration talks.

CUBA-US: Citing ‘Plot’, Castro Calls Off Seattle Travel Plans

The third ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) opened Tuesday in Seattle without the controversial and charismatic presence of Cuban President Fidel Castro, who announced at the last minute that he would not attend, complaining of a "plot" against him backed by U.S. authorities.

COMMODITIES: Towards a Strategic Cuban-Venezuelan Alliance in Oil

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's two-day official visit to Cuba brought progress in negotiations towards a joint venture in the oil sector, the Achilles' heel of the Cuban economy.

POLITICS-CUBA: Gov’t Celebrates UN Anti-Embargo Triumph

The Cuban government applauded the United Nations (UN) General Assembly's approval Tuesday of a resolution that condemns the United States economic embargo against the island, calling the resolution "a new victory."

POLITICS-CUBA: Gov’t Celebrates UN Anti-Embargo Triumph

The Cuban government applauded the United Nations (UN) General Assembly's approval Tuesday of a resolution that condemns the United States economic embargo against the island, calling the resolution "a new victory."