News stories by Ivet Gonzalez, page 4

SAN JUAN Y MARTÍNEZ, Cuba, Feb 28 (IPS) - "We have to wait and see," "There isn't a lot of talk about it," are the responses from tobacco workers in this rural area in western Cuba when asked about the prospect of an opening of the U.S. market to Cuban cigars.

, Feb 20 (IPS) - On the blue flame of her biogas stove, it takes half as long for rural doctor Arianna Toledo to heat bath water and cook dinner as it did four years ago, when she still used electric power or firewood.

CAUTO CRISTO, Cuba, Feb 11 (IPS) - When it rains, trucks get stuck in the mud on the poor roads in this rural municipality in eastern Cuba. The local population needs more and better roads to improve their lives and help give a much-needed boost to the country's farming industry.

BABINEY, Cuba, Jan 31 (IPS) - Most people in Cuba without toilets use the traditional outhouse. But an innovative, ecological alternative is catching on in remote rural communities.

HAVANA, Jan 26 (IPS) - The biggest discrepancies in the first meeting to normalise relations between Cuba and the United States, after more than half a century, were over the issue of human rights. But what stood out in the talks was a keen interest in forging ahead, in a process led by two women.

, Oct 30 (IPS) - Up and down the streets of towns and cities in Cuba go horse-drawn carriages with black leather tops and large back wheels, alongside more simple carts, operating as public transportation.

CÁRDENAS, Cuba, Oct 16 (IPS) - Cafés, real estate agencies, taxis and other small privately-owned businesses and cooperatives in Cuba have brought new life to the depressed local economy and have given rise to pockets of prosperity in the country's towns and cities.

HAVANA, Aug 07 (IPS) - Scattered houses amidst small fields of vegetables and other crops line the road to the La China farm on the outskirts of the Cuban capital. This is where Hortensia Martínez works – a mechanical engineer who has been called crazy by many for deciding to become a small farmer.

HAVANA, Aug 06 (IPS) - Tears, silence and evasive responses are the reactions from Cubans when they are asked about the "balseros" or rafters crisis; two decades after an exodus without parallel in Latin America, it remains a taboo subject in this Caribbean island nation.

HAVANA, Jun 21 (IPS) - Two men kiss each other while two women dance together without making other clients feel uncomfortable at the prívate club Humboldt 67, one of the venues seeking to cash in on an untapped market by fulfilling the unmet demand for bas, restaurants and other recreational spaces for the LGBTI community in the Cuban capital.