Entries by Havana Live

Havana may become a new Hollywood location

HAVANA, Jan. 22th. (AP) The producers of Showtime’s dark comedy “House of Lies” had $3 million and a mission: shoot the first episode of scripted American television in Cuba in more than half a century. With less than a week to shoot the entire fifth-season finale on the chaotic streets of central Havana, director Matthew […]

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Havana, judo capital of the world

HAVANA, Jan. 22th  (Xinhua)  The Judo Grand Prix tournament with 428 athletes from 69 countries attending got underway in Havana on Thursday. The competition is important as it will count towards the qualifying list for the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio De Janeiro. The draw for the 14 divisions (men and women) took place on […]

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Cuba tries price controls to tame food inflation

HAVANA, Jan. 21th. (REUTERS) Cuba is backtracking on some key agricultural reforms and experimenting with restoring price controls in the face of public demands that the government tame rising food costs. Prices are up because of limited production, poor weather and greater demand fueled in part by the market-oriented reforms championed by President Raul Castro. […]

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Eusebio Leal Spengler recieved the 2016 Driehaus Prize

HAVANA, Jan. 20th. Eusebio Leal Spengler, city historian of Havana,has been named the recipient of the 2016 Richard H. Driehaus Prize at the University of Notre Dame.He will receive the $50,000 Henry Hope Reed Award, given annually to an individual working outside the practice of architecture who has supported the cultivation of the traditional city, […]

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Cuba is the Top “Luxury Travel” Up-and-Coming Destination

HAVANA, Jan. 20th. Travel Leaders Group released its top luxury travel trends for 2016 including the top up-and-coming destinations led by Cuba; the list also includes the United Arab Emirates, African Safaris, Iceland and Antarctica. In addition, more than 86% of those surveyed state that luxury travel bookings are higher than or on par with 2015, […]

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Havana’s plus-size ballerinas feel like dancing

HAVANA, Jan. 20th  (AFP) With wide waists in white tutus, their figures are far from those of typical ballerinas — but these plus-size Cuban dancers are determined to defy stereotypes. In a land with a fiercely demanding dance tradition, the women have turned their large physique into an artistic virtue, proudly taking to the stage […]

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Circuba to Celebrate 35th Anniversary

Havana, Jan 19 (Prensa Latina) The International Circus Festival in Cuba (Circuba), the third oldest of its kind in the world, will celebrate in 2016 its 35 anniversary, said organizers today. Following the festivals of Monte-Carlo (1974) and Circus for Tomorrow (1977), the worldwide renowned festival Circuba (1981) will be held here from July 12th […]

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Cuba Rocked by More than 400 Earthquakes in One Day

HAVANA, Jan. 19th On Sunday, Cuba was rocked by a total of 452 earthquakes, 19 of them which were felt by residents of the country who panicked at the thought of having massive damages in infrastructure, and even loss of lives. A  LaRed21 report indicated that of the strongest jolts recorded a 4.8 and a 4.6 […]

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American Biologists Visiting Cuba to Study Orchids

HAVANA, Jan. 16th American biologists are also taking advantage of the restored diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba to study plants and animals. One of the ongoing programs is the preservation of different orchid species found in Cuba that used to be present in Florida. Members of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and […]

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US Allows Telecommunication Carriers to Provide Services in Cuba

HAVANA, Jan. 15th The US administration permits all country’s telecommunication carriers to provide services between the United States and Cuba, according to a new US Federal Communications Commission order. “We agree…that removing Cuba from the Exclusion List will make it easier for US facilities based carriers to initiate service to Cuba, promote open communications, and help foster bilateral communications between the United States […]

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Natalie Portman visits Havana

HAVANA, Jan, 15th (EFE) Actress Natalie Portman, winner of an Oscar for playing the part of a ballerina in the 2010 film “Black Swan,” visited Havana and met with ex-ballerina and choreographer Alicia Alonso, sources at the National Ballet of Cuba, or BNC, the company the legendary artist founded and still directs, told EFE on […]

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Mexico eyes natural gas exports to Cuba

HAVANA, Jan. 15th Mexico is exploring the prospect of exporting natural gas to Cuba as the Caribbean island advances in its reindustrialisation following rapprochement with Washington. Ildefonso Guajardo, Mexico’s economy minister, told reporters that a shallow-water gas pipeline down the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Tuxtla in Mexico, which is due […]

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Cuba prevails in Havana Club rum dispute

HAVANA, Jan. 15th. A two-decades-old battle over who has the right to use the Havana Club trademark in the United States played out quietly at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week with the decision that the rightful owner is a Cuban government company. The fight pitted Bacardi against Cubaexport, the Cuban partner of […]

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Foreign Investors and Cuba’s New “Self-Employed Match-Makers”

HAVANA, Jan, 14th (Fernando Ravsberg) A European newspaper reports that a new breed of “self-employed match-maker” has emerged in Cuba, offering “services to first-time, impatient investors.” These individuals promise entrepreneurs that they will guide them in this process, all the way down to the “approval or rejection of hotel projects in keys, golf courses in […]

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U.S. Cruise Lines Waiting for Approval to Sail to Cuba

HAVANA, Jan. 14th One of the cruise lines, , is hoping to get the approval before its planned trip in May. The itinerary of the cruise is for seven days that will visit several places in Havana including different cultural centers and schools, private restaurants and an organic farm that is part of Cuba’s gardening […]

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Obama calls for lifting Cuba embargo: ‘The Cold War is over’

HAVANA, Jan.13th President Obama knocked Republicans on Tuesday night for slow-rolling his Cuba policy, saying they should lift a decades-long embargo because “the Cold War is over.” “Fifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting us back in Latin America,” he said in the House chamber during his final State of the […]

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Delaware Law School sending students to Havana

HAVANA, Jan. 13th Widener University announced Tuesday it will be sending students to Cuba as part of a new class being offered by the Delaware Law School. The one-week trip will be part of the three-credit course Business Transactions in Emerging Economies taught by Professor Christine D. Allie. The class of about 30 students will […]

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Major Lazer to play Havana for US-Cuba festival

Major Lazer, one of the most popular acts in electronic music, will perform in Cuba as part of a rare US-linked festival as relations thaw between the Cold War adversaries. HAVANA, Jan.13th (AFP)The group, whose “Lean On” is the most popular song ever on streaming service Spotify, will play March 6 on the Havana waterfront […]

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Unusual Rainy Winter in Cuba

HAVANA, Jan 12th  (Prensa Latina) A rainier winter than usual takes place in Cuba due to the presence of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event, with strong rank in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, Granma newspaper reported today. The Forecast Center of the Institute of Meteorology suggesting a winter season with accumulated rainfall above normal in […]

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Unilever returns to Cuba in joint venture

HAVANA, Jan. 11th (Reuters) Global consumer products company Unilever Plc (UNc.AS)(ULVR.L) will return to Cuba after a several-year absence, agreeing on Monday to build a $35 million soap and toothpaste factory in Cuba’s special development zone at the port of Mariel west of Havana. The Dutch-British company left Cuba in 2012 in a dispute over […]

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Germany and Cuba agree to open trade office in Havana

Burying old Cold War tensions, Germany and Cuba have agreed to open a trade office in Havana. German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the countries “want a new partnership on an eye-to-eye level.” HAVANA, Jan. 8th  (AFP/Reuters) The memorandum, signed by Sigmar Gabriel (above, center) at the start of his two-day trade […]

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US Hellfire missile mistakenly shipped to Havana

HAVANA, Jan. 8th A dummy US Hellfire missile was mistakenly shipped from Europe to Cuba in 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The inert missile did not contain any explosives, the Journal reported, but there are concerns that Cuba could share the technology with potential US adversaries such as North Korea or Russia. […]

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‘Fast and Furious 8’ Eyeing to Shoot in Cuba

The Universal sequel would be the first major studio production to shoot on the island. HAVANA, Jan. 7th  The Fast and Furious franchise is known for globetrotting to some of the world’s most exotic and exciting locations, taking stars Vin Diesel, Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris and the late Paul Walker from the streets of […]

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‘House of Lies’ to be first U.S. show filmed in Havana

HAVANA, Jan. 6th Don Cheadle’s Showtime comedy “House of Lies” will film one episode of its fifth season in Havana, making it the first U.S. scripted series to film in Cuba since the countries’ diplomatic relations were restored last summer. The dramedy stars Cheadle as a fast-talking and cunning management consultant who heads the firm Kaan & […]

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Cuba May Use Middlemen for Flights to U.S.

HAVANA, Jan. 6th  The Cuban government is considering different ways to bypass the potential expropriation of its aircraft, which the U.S. could impound on American soil as payment for billions of dollars in unpaid U.S. terrorism judgments against Cuba, a State Department official told Bloomberg BNA. Meanwhile, several Miami attorneys who won multi-million dollar terrorism […]

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Meet Cuba’s Amateur Boxers

HAVANA, Jan. 5th  To be an amateur boxer in Cuba is something to be proud of – not so much for the monetary compensation, as none of the athletes have achieved affluence through their fame, but for the widespread recognition as the whole country cheers the achievements of its players. As Alberto Puig de la […]

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President Obama may visit Cuba this year

HAVANA, Jan. 4th  In a move that would have been unthinkable at the start of his presidency, Barack Obama may well mark his final year in office with a historic trip to communist Cuba, which has been under a US trade embargo for more than 50 years. The trip would be more likely to materialize […]

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Santeria priests predict more migration, social unrest in 2016

HAVANA, Jan 2 (Reuters)   Priests offering New Year’s prophecies from Cuba’s Afro-Cuban religion forecast an explosion in migration and social unrest worldwide in 2016. Many on the Caribbean island eagerly wait for guidance from the Santeria religion’s annual forecast. Santeria, with roots in West African tradition brought to Cuba by slaves, is practiced by […]

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