News stories by Ivet Gonzalez, page 6

CIÉNAGA DE ZAPATA, Cuba, Nov 28 (IPS) - The 18 communities in Cuba's Ciénaga de Zapata, the largest wetlands in the Caribbean, have long survived on the abundant local hunting and fishing and by producing charcoal. But that is no longer possible, due to climate change.

HAVANA, Oct 22 (IPS) - In the 1960s, the Cuban government declared that storage of fresh water for times of drought or hurricanes was a matter of national security, and it began to dam up the country's rivers. But that policy has claimed an unforeseen victim: mangroves, which normally buffer the shoreline from the erosive impact of storms and waves.

HAVANA, Oct 09 (IPS) - You can't buy it in a store or get it in Cuba's public health clinics. But young men who frequent gyms know who sells it and secretly inject themselves with "peanut oil," as people in this country refer to synthol and other products that increase muscle mass.

HAVANA, Sep 02 (IPS) - The stray cat's fur was burned and its eyes were hanging from its sockets when pensioner Neida González found it on a street in the Cuban capital. The cat, which she named Grenlito, now lives with her eight other pets.

HAVANA, Aug 19 (IPS) - Vilda Figueroa and her husband, José Lama, live in Marianao on the outskirts of Havana, where they share hundreds of recipes based on Cuban-grown foods and sun-drying, along with other ecological food preservation methods.

HAVANA, Jul 14 (IPS) - More and more young men in Cuba are moving away from the traditional masculine aesthetic and are spending hours in front of the mirror or at the gym. But they are not any less "machista" in behaviour, according to specialists meeting in the capital.

CIEGO DE ÁVILA, Cuba, Jul 05 (IPS) - Houses with sturdy masonry walls and reinforced concrete roofs, looking like they could survive any tropical storm or hurricane, are sprouting up on the outskirts of this city in central Cuba, thanks to the development of local production of construction materials.

HAVANA, May 09 (IPS) - "But I always used a condom!" was the sentence that played over and over in Jaime Roche's mind when the young Cuban man tested positive for HIV in October.

HAVANA, Apr 03 (IPS) - Three-year-old Yanaghy García has been in the William Soler Children's Hospital, in the Cuban capital, for a month. He suffers from epilepsy, but he forgets about it all for a while and smiles at the antics of Mantequilla, a clown.

HAVANA, Mar 04 (IPS) - Cuba continues to focus heavily on oil for its energy needs, through agreements with partners like Venezuela, with the hope of discovering commercially exploitable wells in the Gulf of Mexico.