News stories by Patricia Grogg, page 15

The radical restructuring of employment launched by President Raúl Castro has Cubans, on the one hand, feeling anxious about possibly losing their jobs and, on the other, looking forward to testing the real scope of opportunities in the private sector, where an estimated 250,000 additional people may soon be working for themselves.

Cuban women have to work twice as hard as men to get ahead in their careers. But things are even tougher for black women in Cuba, although discrimination by reason of gender or skin colour is prohibited by law and by the constitution itself.

Cuban women have to work twice as hard as men to get ahead in their careers. But things are even tougher for black women in Cuba, although discrimination by reason of gender or skin colour is prohibited by law and by the constitution itself.

'I am not pessimistic, but I am realistic. Under present conditions and the prevailing system of world government, the Millennium Development Goals simply cannot be achieved,' Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno said in an interview with IPS.

The elimination of half a million public sector jobs, starting immediately and lasting through the first quarter of 2011, is one of the most complex and sensitive aspects of the reforms announced by Cuban President Raúl Castro.

The announcement of a plan to expand the practice of self-employment in Cuba as an alternative for the 'excess' workers who are to be slashed from the public workforce presents several challenges to the socialist model that the government is seeking to modernise.

Cuba is getting ready to welcome tourists from the United States, in the event that the ban on travel by U.S. citizens to this Caribbean island nation is lifted, as well as clamouring more loudly for a presidential pardon for the five Cuban agents who have spent the last 12 years in U.S. prisons.

Cuban President Raúl Castro announced a series of measures to gradually reduce the 'considerably bulky' payrolls in the government sector, with excess estimated at around one-fifth of the economically active population.

Only hurricanes disrupt the tranquility of Cocodrilo, a Cuban coastal village founded by immigrants from the Cayman Islands in the early 20th century.

The anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks, commemorating Revolution Day, one of the most important dates on Cuba's calendar, found the country caught up in speculation that Fidel Castro might appear on the platform, and raised fresh expectations about changes promised four years ago.