News stories by Patricia Grogg, page 8

Local communities can play a key role in adaptation to climate change if they are helped to properly understand the problem and take it on board. 'Climate literacy is needed,' says Ángela Corvea, a long-time Cuban environmental activist.

As a result of climate change-related extreme weather events like a rise in the sea level and increasingly intense storms alternating with drought, Caribbean island nations are facing the challenge of adopting adaptation measures that could be too costly for their budgets.

One of the major challenges facing Cuba as it designs climate change adaptation policies is the preservation of its coastal ecosystems against the predicted rise in sea level and increasingly catastrophic extreme weather events.

On his three-day visit to Cuba, Pope Benedict XVI has so far struck a moderate tone, although he called on Catholics in this country to fight with the 'weapons' of peace and understanding for an 'open, renewed society.'

In this eastern Cuban city, Danny Dip Leyva has begun to use her shower again after decades of hauling water into her house by hand. But in Aurora, a small neighbourhood on the outskirts of Havana, Manuel Roque still longs for a regular supply of piped water.

Excessive delays by the Cuban government in evaluating foreign aid projects for their compatibility with the country’s economic planning policies have created uncertainty for aid organisations, which have sometimes even been forced to return funds to donors due to missed deadlines.

A small group of dissidents who identify themselves as members of the Republican Party of Cuba (PRC) continued to occupy a Havana church Thursday, demanding a response to their grievances, despite the fact that the Catholic Church rejected the use of its churches for political ends.

Cuba never asked to be invited to a Summit of the Americas, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said in response to protests from some governments in the region at Havana’s exclusion from the meetings of Western Hemisphere leaders.

The Catholic Church in Cuba expects people to welcome Pope Benedict XVI with warmth and enthusiasm, even though Catholics are not a majority here like they are in Mexico, the first stop on the pope’s Latin America tour that begins Mar. 23.

The search for oil in Cuba’s Gulf of Mexico waters, launched by the Spanish firm Repsol, has triggered speculation about future prospects for Cuba and the possibility of this country one day making the transition from importer to exporter of crude.