On Cuba's main holiday honoring the island's revolution, President Raul Castro declared once again that his government is ready to enter into talks with the United States.
A shipment of humanitarian goods that the shipper says are not prohibited by Washington's longtime trade embargo departed a Miami River terminal Wednesday bound for Cuba.
A 49-year-old grandmother who wanted to become the first person to swim 103 miles from Cuba to the Florida Keys unassisted ended her bid early Sunday morning when a strong current in the shark-infested waters made it "impossible" for her to continue, her team said.
In the nineties a certain joke became very popular in the streets and homes of Cuba. It began with Pepito -- the mischievous boy of our national humor -- and told how his teacher, brandishing a photo of the U.S. president, launches into a harsh diatribe against him.
The sun rose over the Florida Straits Saturday with endurance swimmer Penny Palfrey covering half the estimated distance of her swim from Cuba to the United States, said a Florida meteorologist who is advising Palfrey's team.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann looks at how Cuba's proud boxing heritage is rewarded by Olympic expectation.
A jailed American contractor said Friday he feels like a "hostage," in Cuba, where he is serving a 15-year prison sentence on charges of subversion.
Rafael Villares is a talented Cuban artist who appears to work effortlessly in mediums such as painting and sculpture.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann reports on a new website that allows people around the world to support artists living in Cuba.
Decades navigating the roads in Cuba have left deep scars on Sergio Morales' jet black 1947 Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Pope Benedict XVI visits Cuba following the Vatican-brokered release of political prisoners. Patrick Oppmann reports.
A man convicted of spying in the United States for the Cuban government arrived in Cuba Friday to visit his dying brother, according to the communist nation's state-run media.
Greeted by throngs of Catholic worshipers from across the region, Pope Benedict XVI ended his two-country tour in Havana's Revolution Plaza with a reference to what he described as a need for "authentic freedom."
A top Cuban official told reporters in Havana on Tuesday that his country's political system is "sustainable" and that it will not change.
[Updated 2:30 p.m. Monday, March 26] Children play baseball in the streets of Havana, Cuba, on Saturday.
Dozens of members of the group "Ladies in White" were detained Sunday in Havana and several -- including the group's leader -- were unaccounted for and believed to be under arrest, a group member said.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann moves from Seattle to Havana, Cuba.
Preparing a get-together where not all the guests get along is tricky, whether at a dinner party, or, as Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is experiencing, at a hemispheric summit.
On Yosvany Concepcion's ramshackle farm, there is little to suggest that he is producing a highly sought-after luxury item.
Cuban cigar makers celebrate increased sales. CNN's Patrick Oppmann reports.
Leading members of Cuba's Communist party on Saturday met to discuss the future of the island's revolution, including the possibility of term limits for top officials.
For more than 50 years, the United States has had an embargo against the island of Cuba, all because we supposedly hate communism and believe the nation 90 miles from our borders should institute democracy.
The Cuban government defended its rights record and slammed the United States for its criticism over the death of prisoner Wilman Villar Mendoza.
Indultarán a 2.900 presos; no se incluye al contratista Alan Gross.
Cuba will pardon more than 2,900 prisoners, the government said Friday, though U.S. subcontractor Alan Gross is not among those who will be freed.
A group of Cuban exiles will host a fireworks show for Cubans on Friday night, but supporters of the Cuban leaders see it as a U.S.-backed attempt to destabilize the communist island.
Pope Benedict XVI is planning potential trips to Mexico and Cuba in 2012, the Vatican said.
Another chartered flight is scheduled to leave the United States for Cuba Sunday as a result of recent U.S. government moves to ease restrictions on travel to the Communist nation.
In a move that could reshape the Cuban economy, the government on Thursday announced a new law that allows for the sale of real estate.
The U.N. General Assembly voted Tuesday in favor of a resolution calling for an end to the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba.
An airport in New Orleans has received approval to join the ranks of U.S. airports hosting flights to and from Cuba, officials said Wednesday.
Cuba on Wednesday accused former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson of "blackmail" and denied the government had invited him here to negotiate the release of an American contractor sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Former Gov. Bill Richardson talks about his trip to Cuba to negotiate the release of American contractor Alan Gross.
Cuba has stepped up its harassment of dissidents in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, with authorities beating, gassing and arresting protesters critical of the Communist government, human rights activists said Wednesday.
I believe in remakes. "Father of the Bride," "Ocean's Eleven," "The Parent Trap"... Each version was a classic in its own time.
For the first time in 50 years, Cubans will be allowed to buy and sell their homes, as CNN's Shasta Darlington reports.
Olivia Sersute and her sister have shared the same home on the second floor of a faded Havana mansion since they were children and even after getting married and having kids of their own.
A United Airlines flight was diverted to Cuba on Sunday after its crew reported a strong odor in the plane, U.S. aviation and airline spokesmen said.
Cuba marked the 58th anniversary of the start of Fidel Castro's revolution Tuesday, without a speech from his younger brother, current President Raul Castro.
More than 50 years after the fact, Cuba has published the diary that Ernesto "Che" Guevara kept during the armed struggle that he waged alongside Fidel Castro from the Sierra Maestra mountains.
What is your favorite neighborhood? Why?
The mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a political prisoner who died last year after a prolonged hunger strike, says she will continue to fight for democracy in Cuba after she emigrates to the United States on Thursday.
Cuban leader Raul Castro vows to rejuvenate leadership and the economy. Shasta Darlington reports.
On the job, Juani Santos is just another one of the guys.
Transsexuals in Cuba used to be locked up or sent to camps, but now times have changed. CNN's Shasta Darlington reports.
The Cuban government said Monday that it plans to study ways to allow residents of the island nation to travel abroad as tourists, suggesting it will ease the bureaucratic hurdles and outright restrictions that prevent many residents from leaving.
Forget the sun and sand, thousands of tourists head to Cuba for salsa dancing. CNN's Shasta Darlington reports.
Young and old burn up the dance floor at Havana's Las Canitas nightclub every weekend. On a recent Saturday night, half of the dancers twirling to the latest salsa hits were from Switzerland.
Luis Posada Carriles told CNN recently he would "be gentle" with a newspaper reporter who accused him of masterminding decades of violent terrorist attacks in Central America, several to overthrow Fidel Castro.
Cuba's cars and homes will go on sale soon as part of sweeping economic changes. Shasta Darlington reports.
They rumble down city boulevards and country roads across Cuba: 1950s Fords, Buicks and Pontiacs, some in mint condition, others on the verge of collapse.
Fifty years after the United States' failed Bay of Pigs invasion, Cuba looks to redefine itself for future generations.
Tanks rumbled through Havana's Revolution Plaza and jets tore through the sky on Saturday as Cuba commemorated its victory over a U.S.-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs 50 years ago and prepared to hold its first Communist Party Congress in nearly 14 years.
A jury in El Paso, Texas, found Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles not guilty Friday of lying to U.S. immigration officials, according to Mike Maiella with the U.S. District Court.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, will travel Monday to Havana, Cuba, for a visit at the invitation of the Cuban government, the Carter Center announced Friday.
Fidel Castro tells a U.S. journalist that the Cuban economic model no longer works. CNN's Shasta Darlington reports.
Ten Cuban prisoners -- including a doctor nominated last month for the Nobel Peace Prize -- will be released from prison, the Roman Catholic Church said .
CNN's Shasta Darlington reports on the trial of an American subcontractor for USAID in Cuba.
American government contractor Alan Gross went on trial in Cuba Friday in a case that appears to have derailed a tentative rapprochement between the long-estranged countries.
Under Fidel Castro's rule, golf was all but eliminated in Cuba, but the bourgeois sport of the West is poised for a comeback on the communist-run island.
Cuban dissidents remember hunger striker on first anniversary of his death. CNN's Shasta Darlington reports.
When jailed Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo went on a hunger strike to demand better prisoner conditions, only a handful of government opponents knew who he was.
Cuba is set to release seven prisoners, including a dissident arrested in a notorious crackdown on the opposition in 2003, the Roman Catholic Church said.
The war between Cuba's communist government and its enemies shifts to the internet. CNN's Shasta Darlington reports.
For years, small groups of Cuban dissidents have taken their demands to the streets, calling for political freedom as they get pushed around and shouted down by swarms of government supporters.
Cuba will soon release two prominent political prisoners, the Catholic Church said Friday, and will allow one of them to remain in the country in a sign that it will not require jailed dissidents to go into exile as a condition of their release.
A Cuban court has sentenced 13 hospital staff to lengthy prison terms in the deaths of 26 psychiatric patients during a cold snap last year, state media reported Tuesday.
Cuba on Sunday called President Barack Obama's latest easing of travel restrictions to the island nation "positive" but accused Washington of continuing its policy of "destabilization."
The federal government will loosen restrictions on U.S. relations with Cuba within two weeks, the White House said Friday.
A foe of the Cuban Revolution goes on trial. CNN's Patrick Oppmann speaks with Cubans who call Luis Posada a terrorist.
For most of his 82 years, Luis Posada Carriles has endeavored with a single-minded determination to bring down the Cuban Revolution.
Cuba announced a Cabinet reshuffle Friday, sacking the construction minister for undisclosed "errors" and removing the communications minister in order to give him broader oversight over various ministries.
Cuba is releasing two more political prisoners who will be sent straight from prison to exile in Spain, the Roman Catholic Church said Friday.
A Cuban court Tuesday commuted the sentence of the nation's only prisoner facing the death penalty, and instead sentenced him to 30 years in prison, according to the official Cubadebate website.
A Cuban government-run website has begun translating into Spanish and posting online leaked U.S. government cables that discuss the island nation.
Cuba is launching its own version of Wikipedia Tuesday with an online encyclopedia that describes the United States as the "empire of our time."
In October, CNN's Max Foster talked to Shasta Darlington about Cuba's attempts to revitalize its economy.
As Havana prepares for its first Communist Party Congress in 14 years in April, the United States should seize the opportunity to positively influence the economic blueprint the party is expected to approve.
Russian energy firm Gazprom has joined a growing list of foreign companies searching for oil off Cuba's coast.
Search crews have found the flight data recorder in the charred remains of a fiery plane crash in central Cuba that left 68 people dead, state media reported Friday.
Aero Caribbean plane crashes in rural Cuba, killing everyone on board. CNN's Shasta Darlington reports.
The Catholic Church opened its first seminary in Cuba in more than 50 years on Wednesday, with President Raul Castro in attendance.
The United Nations General Assembly voted Tuesday in favor of a resolution calling for an end to the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba. There were 187 member states in favor of the resolution, two against, and three abstentions.
There are still roadblocks to a warming of U.S.-Cuba relations, despite Cuba's recent release of political prisoners.
Cuba's Roman Catholic Church on Thursday announced the names of five more prisoners to be freed who do not belong to a group of 52 jailed dissidents originally set for release.
CNN's Adriana Hauser speaks with two members of the American Ballet Theater Company, before a historic trip to Cuba.
Amnesty International has questioned the fairness of a U.S. trial that convicted five Cuban agents of espionage, conspiracy to commit murder and other related charges.
Tropical Storm Paula pushed across western Cuba Thursday evening with wind gusts just under hurricane strength in some places, bringing heavy rain and high winds to the island nation, forecasters said.
CNN's Shasta Darlington describes what is being done in Cuba to prevent weather problems of the past.
Three Cuban political prisoners who were not part of an originally announced release, will nonetheless be freed, Cuba's Roman Catholic Church said Saturday.
Cuba is set to further empty its jails, adding at least another nine inmates to a list of those it plans to free, a human rights leader said Monday.
Cubans braced for high winds and heavy rain Tuesday as a tropical depression pushed toward the island nation, forecasters in both Cuba and the United States said.
Cuba's Roman Catholic Church on Monday announced the names of three more political prisoners soon to be released from jail, raising the total number to 39 following a deal brokered by church leaders and Spain's Foreign Ministry back in July.
CNN's Shasta Darlington takes a look at what's in store for Cubans entering the private sector.
Cubans will be allowed to work for themselves in 178 activities in the private sector and even hire employees, according to guidelines published Friday as the communist government moves quickly to shed half a million state jobs and provide alternatives for workers.
Sometimes, a little inspiration can come from unexpected places.
In April 2009, the White House released a presidential memorandum declaring that democracy and human rights in Cuba were "national interests of the United States."
Cuba accused U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday of failing to keep his promise of a new start with the communist island, saying that far from easing the U.S. trade embargo, his administration has tightened some restrictions.
Cuba plans to cut 10% of its public workforce as part of its economic reform plan. CNN's Shasta Darlington reports.
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