•  Angola celebrates its freedom
November 14, 2013
ON November 11, 1975, President Antonio Agostinho Neto proclaimed before Africa and the world the birth of the People’s Republic of Angola (now the Republic of Angola). After 14 years of armed struggle, the last Portuguese colony was finally achieving its independence.

• In everyone’s view
November 7, 2013
"STOP watching us," was the slogan of thousands of U.S. citizens demonstrating in Washington, as was the content of messages from Germany, Brazil, France and Mexico. The government secret is in full view and before them the dangers of this part of power operating in the shadows.

• Grenada paid for the U.S. defeat in Vietnam
October 31, 2013
WHAT could lead the most powerful country in the world to invade a nation of only 110,000 inhabitants? Three decades ago, some 7,000 U.S. marines and parachutists occupied Grenada, in an operation labeled Urgent Fury. The capital of this Caribbean island was bombarded by aircraft, helicopters and warships.

•  The price of life
October 31, 2013
NOBODY in their right mind would dare to estimate the price of a life. However, pharmaceutical giants which control the world medications market have spent many years trying to do so and have reached an obvious conclusion: it is extremely high.

 •  INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
A civilizing crusade against Africa?
October 24, 2013
THE African Union (AU), an intergovernmental organization involving the majority of countries on the continent, held an extraordinary meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss their relations with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

• Who won the U.S. budget battle?
October 24, 2013
REPUBLICAN Speaker of the House John Boehner said October 16, "We fought the good fight, we just didn’t win," after two weeks of wrangling for concessions in exchange for the approval of a new government budget and an increase in the country’s debt limit. If his party lost, did the Democrats win? Can Barack Obama consider himself victorious?

•  Vietnam’s final farewell to General Giap
October 17, 2013
HANOI.—The highest-ranking leaders of state and the Communist Party of Vietnam presided during the funeral of Senior General Vo Nguyen Giap on October 13 in his native province of Quang Binh, amid tens of thousands of compatriots who gathered to pay their last respects.

•  50 YEARS AFTER THE ASSASSINATION OF KENNEDY
The frustrated CIA and Chiefs of Staff coup
October 17, 2013
IN a recording of a conversation aboard the aircraft which transported the body of President Kennedy to Washington it was recently revealed that General Curtis LeMay, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, was covertly present on the flight. LeMay and General Lyman Lemnitzer attempted to mount a coup d’état in June of 1962, which was concealed from public opinion. The coup was delayed until the assassination of Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

•  Keiderling: CIA agent in Havana
October 11, 2013
KELLY Keiderling Franz, the business attaché recently expelled from the U.S. embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, revealed herself as a CIA agent in the relationship she conducted in Havana with the Cuban double agent Raúl Capote.

•  50 YEARS SINCE THE ASSASSINATION OF KENNEDY
The conspiracy of the 20th century
October 11, 2013
THIS year marks the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Robert Kennedy (June 5, 1968) and the 50th of the crime against his brother John Kennedy in Dallas (November 22, 1963).

•  How much longer must we wait?
October 3, 2013
HUMANITY could cease to exist in an instant. Just by pushing a button in error we would be exposed to a catastrophe worse than those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. Since then, the number of weapons has multiplied to a total of 25,000 in the hands of allied and antagonistic forces.

• Immediate action for nuclear disarmament demanded at UN
October 3, 2013
THE Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) called for the total and general elimination of nuclear weapons at the 68th session of the UN General Assembly.

• Welcome to the new Libya
October 3, 2013
WELCOME to the new Libya, a country ‘liberated’ by NATO which now finds itself without the oil revenues which could make it rich, with no security, no stability and assassinations and corruption at unprecedented levels.

• U.S. Military Strike in Syria on Hold
September 26, 2013
FOR the past month at least, the world seems to have been discussing nothing but whether, how, and when the United States will engage in a punitive air strike of some sort against the Syrian regime of Bashir al-Assad.

• ELECTIONS IN GERMANY
The European motor tunes up its engines
September 26, 2013
ON September 22, only the German population voted, but the results have an effect across Europe. Berlin is the "Holy See" of the policies of austerity, and the inquisitors of the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund were crossing their fingers for the white smoke announcing the reelection of Angela Merkel.

• U.S. ordered to disclose payments to reporters covering the Cuban Five case
September 18, 2013
WASHINGTON .—A U.S. federal court has instructed the State Department to hand over material related to the payment of journalists who acted to the detriment of the Five.

• IMPERIAL CRUSADE AGAINST SYRIA
Without wars, power would not be power
September 12, 2013
WHY is the United States attacking Syria?
Brazil, Russia – reborn as a superpower and an uncomfortable one – India and China – are emerging economies that are already acting as leaders on the world geopolitical stage. It is said that India and China, also the most populated nations of the world, will mark the rate of development during the 21st century.

• Cuba battling to eradicate malaria in Africa
September 12, 2013
LUANDA (PL).—As is the case with Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, Cuba is collaborating with Angola in combating vectors such as mosquitoes, the carriers of malaria and dengue, among other diseases.

• VIETNAM
An ever more beautiful country
September 6, 2013
SIXTY-eight years have transpired since that September 2, 1945, when revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam – also called North Vietnam – in Hanoi’s Da Dinh Plaza. The Indochinese country was no longer a French colony and became a state with socialist aspirations.

• ELECTIONS IN GERMANY
Angela Merkel after a hat trick
September 6, 2013
THE Edward Snowden case sent shock waves throughout the world. Reverberations were felt in many countries in the context of his revelations of U.S. government espionage activities on both American citizens and theirs. Popular indignation and political agitation prompted a series of threats on the part of the White House directed at countries where the former agent might seek refuge and even endangered the life of the President of a sovereign country. The repercussions of this crime of illegally spying on citizens of all the nations involved were evident. In all of them apart from Germany.

• IBRAHIM BUBAKAR KEITA
The strong man who is to govern Mali
August 30, 2013
ON August 20, the Malian Constitutional Court confirmed the decision to appoint former Prime Minister Ibrahim Bubakar Keita as the new leader of the country. He will initiate a five-year mandate on September 4.

• Where is Egypt going?
August 22, 2013
SOME images of Cairo portray it as a city at war. After the violence unleashed August 14, which left more than 600 dead and 3,000 injured, tensions has not diminished. In a polarized country, with various forces fighting each other, and a population of approximately 82 million inhabitants, it is difficult to predict with certainty what will happen in the next few days or weeks.

• The dissidents
August 15, 2013
ALMOST everyone talks about how they believed in the official rhetoric of their country, in the mission of the United States as the global guardian of democracy, as the beacon of liberating hope, as an example for humanity.

• Iranian President receives Cuban leader
August 6, 2013
The newly elected president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hasan Rohani, who was sworn in before the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) on August 4 in Teheran, received Ricardo Cabrisas, a vice president of Cuba’s Council of Ministers, who led the country’s delegation to the inauguration in Iran.

• Supporters in more than 40 cities take action for Bradley Manning
August 1, 2013
July 26, demonstrators marched and blocked the gates of Ft. McNair, in Washington D.C., at the office of Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, Convening Authority for WikiLeaks whistleblower Bradley Manning’s trial.

• NATO is ready and waiting to attack
August 1, 2013
Just like any good household appliance, the Allied Joint Force Command in Naples, Italy, (JFC Naples) is officially on stand by, that is ready to enter into action, to go to war, at any moment.

• Supporters in more than 40 cities take action for Bradley Manning
August 1, 2013
July 26, demonstrators marched and blocked the gates of Ft. McNair, in Washington D.C., at the office of Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, Convening Authority for WikiLeaks whistleblower Bradley Manning’s trial.

• Mandela, a life devoted to equality
July 23, 2013
Mandela experienced 27 extremely hard years in appalling conditions in prison. Nevertheless, he never retreated from his convictions, his determination to free his people from racism.

• Latin America in U.S. line of fire
July 23, 2013
Revelations made by former CIA analyst Edward Snowden have opened a Pandora’s box and created an international scandal which could easily continue for some time. The United States government’s vast espionage network has not only focused on U.S. citizens, but various countries around the world as well, including many in Latin America and the Caribbean.

• Tempora, the UK international spying project
July 11, 2013
THE United States is not the only country interested in knowing what the rest of the world is talking and thinking about. During the past 18 months, the United Kingdom has been compiling enormous volumes of information streaming through the network of networks along fiber optic cables, including millions of personal telephone calls.

• The government offensive in Syria and its implications
July 5, 2013
EXPLODING bullets and the acrid smell of tolite marking a turn around of armed confrontations in Syria in favor of President Bashar Al-Assad have had the effect of stirring up a hornet’s nest in the Middle East and beyond.

• Sweden: Challenges to the welfare state
June 28, 2013
RECENT disturbances in some 10 suburban communities around Stockholm have called attention to cracks in Sweden’s so-called welfare state, exposing the problematic marginalization of immigrants in the country.

• American Curios
Orwellian Blues
June 28, 2013
ALL of us who use telephones or any internet communications services – that is almost all e-mail, chat, video-chat, internet phone calls or document delivery – have been informed that we are potentially subject to spying on the part of United States intelligence agencies, particularly if our communication is international.

• German coercion
June 20, 2013
THE devastating austerity measures imposed by Berlin across the Eurozone and on its southern members in particular (Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Cyprus) are provoking a rise in anti-Germanic phobia. In her recent visits to Madrid, Athens and Lisbon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was given a very hostile reception.

• I have confidence in Africa’s progress
June 20, 2013
KENNETH Kaunda, now 89 years of age, comes across as a cheerful, unassuming man, and one who likes to sing. Known as the father of Zambian independence and its first president after liberation from the British metropolis, he affirmed in Havana that lack of unity can detain the development of a state or continent.

• THE OPEN WOUNDS OF RACISM IN THE UNITED STATES
June 20, 2013
FIVE years ago, in June 2009, 146 years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and 150 days after Barack Obama took his oath as President, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution formally apologizing to the Black citizens of the United States for the suffering they and their ancestors experienced under slavery and Jim Crow. In July 2009 the House of Representatives did the same.

• Gezi Park highlights years of destructive urban development
June 13, 2013
FEW imagined that the symbolic act of standing in front of bulldozers in Istanbul’s Gezi Park in an effort to block a development project near the city’s central square would have caused the reaction it did.

• UNITED STATES AND LATIN AMERICA
Re-launch on various fronts
June 13, 2013
UPON commencing his second term in January, Barack Obama initiated an intense period of U.S. activity in Latin America. The President traveled to Mexico and Costa Rica, while Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Brazil at the end of May, moving on to Colombia and Trinidad & Tobago, a few days before the arrival in the latter country of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

• Morocco can never take away our spirit of struggle
June 13, 2013
Malainine Etkana, ambassador of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, talks to Granma about the situation of the people in the last African colony

• Corruption in Spain: Is justice being done?
June 7, 2013
FOR some time now, barely a week has gone by without a news item on corruption in Spain. Judges preside over interminable trials, announce hundreds of accusations, call legions of witnesses and, occasionally, pass sentence, but among the population there is a growing perception that, in the end, ...

• Solidarity and demands in Five event
June 7, 2013
THE 5 Days for the Cuban 5 event which took place in Washington, U.S, from May 30 through June 5, exceeded that of last year, with the participation of parliamentarians, lawyers, trade unionists, public figures and friends in solidarity with this cause from more than 23 countries.

• PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION COUNCIL
"We are living in a new era of friendship and collaboration with Cuba and Latin America"
May 30, 2013
THE international role that Russia has recovered in recent years is undeniable. Its current political weight in international forums has allowed it, to a certain degree, to play a balancing role in the correlation of global forces. This, in conjunction with stable economic development, has enabled the nation to extend its collaboration outward and to cross the Atlantic in search of new links with Latin America.

• 50 years in search of unity and development
May 30, 2013
ON May 25, 1963, leaders of 32 African countries initiated a new stage in the history of Africa by signing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Charter, which subsequently gave rise to the African Union (AU) in July 2002.

• President Kennedy recognized U.S. responsibility for Batista dictatorship and Cuba’s underdevelopment in the 1950’s
May 30, 2013
ON October 24, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was interviewed by journalist Jean Daniel Bensaid, who worked for the French daily newspaper L′Express.

• GUANTANAMO
A ghost from the Bush era pursues Obama
May 23, 2013
GUANTANAMO is robbing Obama of sleep. Ten years after the opening of the prison, on illegally occupied territory in Cuba, the issue had been forgotten by many until a hunger strike by hundreds of prisoners returned it to the public consciousness.

• United States
Pregnant Anti-War Soldier Sent to Prison
May 23, 2013
"ULTIMATELY, the success of the nation depends on the character of its citizens." So said George W. Bush in his speech at the dedication of his presidential library in Texas.

• THE EUROPEAN DREAM GOING THE WAY OF THE AMERICAN DREAM?
May 23, 2013
ROME, May 2013 — The European Union has asked its citizens to brace for further economic misery. In a report on European economic prospects released on May 3, the European Commission said that further deterioration is expected to last at least until 2015.

• SYRIA
Phantom chemical weapons
May 17, 2013
IT was enough for a high-ranking Israeli intelligence official to allege on April 21 that the Syrian government was deploying chemical weapons against so- called insurgents, for the infamous phantom to reemerge as the pretext for a possible military invention in that country.

• Spain’s indignados return to the streets on their 2nd anniversary
May 17, 2013
MADRID.— Thousands of indignados took to the streets across Spain on Sunday, May 12 in protest against the austerity measures of Mariano Rajoy’s government and the crisis of a system in which more than 6.2 million people are unemployed.

• Boasting of virtues not in evidence
May 17, 2013
“America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining. Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature. And we responded with the best of America...” - President George W. Bush, Sept 11, 2001

• The incomplete library
May 9, 2013
RECENTLY, a presidential quintet met in Texas to celebrate the opening of a library bearing the name of one of them, thereby rehabilitating, according to public opinion, one of the worst presidents of the modern era.

• WORLD ILLITERACY
How much longer?
May 9, 2013
ALTHOUGH the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012), has concluded, the problem of illiteracy is far from resolved.

• Thousands of homeless living in tunnels
April 25, 2013
In the principal cities of the United States, one of the most prosperous countries in the world, thousands of people live beneath the streets, in underground tunnels.

• John Kerry’s electoral memory
April 25, 2013
With the failure of its Plan B (destabilization), the Venezuelan opposition finally, on April 17, called on the National Electoral Council (CNE). It took three days for the Capriles Radonski campaign staff to make a formal complaint calling for a recount of the votes. Before they could arrive at this level of "civilized" behavior, eight people – all Maduro supporters - had to die and the entire country suffer 72 hours of irresponsible terror, following Capriles call for his supporters to "vent their rage in the streets."

• The FBI’s Bomb Factory
April 17, 2013
“IT’S nearing dusk on November 26, 2010. More than 25,000 people have gathered in a light rain at Pioneer Square in downtown Portland, Oregon to watch the annual lighting of the holiday tree, a 100-foot-tall Douglas-fir logged from the Willamette National Forest.

• Martin Luther King, from Dallas to Memphis
April 11, 2013
THE assassination of Afro-American leader Martin Luther King, April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee 45 years ago, is considered by many researchers as part of a sinister plot which included the assassinations of Malcolm X, John F. and Robert Kennedy. (1)

• UN criticizes U.S. detention camp on Guantánamo Naval Base
April 11, 2013
UNITED NATIONS.— The United Nations has criticized the U.S. government for maintaining its detention center in the illegally occupied Guantánamo Naval Base, despite assurances it would be closed.

• GUANTANAMO
Endurance and shame
April 11, 2013
FOR close to two months, dozens of detainees in the Guantánamo military prison have been on hunger strike in protest over the confiscation of their letters, photographs and legal correspondence, as well as the desecration of their Korans during cell searches.

• SYRIA
The assault of foreign powers
April 11, 2013
SYRIA has entered its third year of internal warfare, accompanied by sanctions designed to cripple the country economically; the insistence of the United States, its European allies and client Arab states that President, Bashar Al-Assad must go; and increasingly overt military support for armed opposition groups operating within the country.

• BRICS banking on the South
April 4, 2013
WHEN Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill, coined the term BRICS in reference to the five emerging nations with the greatest development possibilities, a large number of global financial institutions did not take into consideration the positive impact that Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa would come to have on the global economic order – an impact they are now attempting to subvert.

• Conditional freedom
April 4, 2013
NEW YORK CITY – Every day, dissidents from various nations come to the United States to denounce before academic forums, human rights organizations and official institutions such as the U.S. Congress that their governments violate the rights to freedom of expression and the press.

• ICE subjects 300 immigrants to solitary confinement every day
April 4, 2013
THE U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) daily subjects to solitary confinement close to 300 individuals who enter the country illegally.

• America's forgotten black cowboys
April 4, 2013
QUENTIN Tarantino's Oscar-winning Western, Django Unchained, is one of relatively few Hollywood films depicting a black cowboy. In reality there were many, some of whose stories were borrowed for films starring white actors.

• WORLD SOCIAL FORUM
A convergence of alternative ideas
April 4, 2013
EVERY meeting of the World Social Forum (WSF) unites, in one place on the planet, movements, organizations, intellectuals and artists from five continents to discuss the principal problems facing humanity and formulate solutions together.

• CUITO CUANAVALE 25TH ANNIVERSARY
The battle which put an end to apartheid
March 28,13
THIS year marks the 20th anniversary (written in 2007) of the opening of the battle of Cuito Cuanavale, in south-eastern Angola, which pitted the armed forces of apartheid South Africa against the Cuban army and Angolan forces.

• Number of prisoners on hunger strike in Guantánamo Base increases
March 26,13
MAXIMUM military authorities at the U.S. prison on the illegally held Guantánamo Naval Base, acknowledged March 24 that the number of prisoners on hunger strike has increased to 26. The prisoners’ protest is against their indefinite incarceration and violations to which they are subjected within the detention center.

• Women of Steel support the Cuban Five
March 21,13
 THE case of the Cuban 5 is known by unions across Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries because on several occasions the mothers and wives of the Five have been invited to speak at labor conferences in those countries. And now in the United States, for the first time, hundreds of women from the United Steelworkers (USW) got to hear about the injustice committed against the Five and their families.

• China perfects its revolution
March 21,13
DURING the first sessions of the 12th National Assembly of the People’s Republic of China, which took place March 17, in Beijing’s Peoples Palace, President Xi Jinping expressed with conviction the intention to continue promoting the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and to attain the dream of national rejuvenation, “without complacency or negligence.”

• State of Law
March 21,13
THE United States congratulates itself on imparting justice in an impartial and transparent way, where everybody, regardless of origin or power, is subject to the state of law. There is equal justice for all, as one of the patriotic school oaths attests.

• US newspaper calls for Cuba to be removed from countries supporting terrorism list
March 15,13
WASHINGTON, March 14.—The United States should exclude Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, according to an editorial in the Los Angeles Times.

• Political Uncertainty in Italy after Pyrrhic victory of Center-Left
March 7,13
"ONE more such victory and we would be utterly ruined!" stated King Pyrrhus after losing almost as many soldiers as his adversaries in the battle of Asculum. Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the Italian center-left coalition, must be feeling the same way at the moment after winning the majority of votes in the recent elections but not enough to form a stable government without support from other parties.

• IMPERIAL CYNICISM
U.S. claims it does not protect oppressors
March 7,13
WHILE the deportation trial of a Salvadoran repressor is underway in Miami, in a U.S. government attempt to clear its reputation as a safe haven for repressors, it continues to ignore applications from various South American countries for the extradition of some of the worst murderers in their history, given refuge in that country.

• Without economic independence, there is no true freedom
February 28,13
"TODAY we live in a world characterized by injustice, in which powerful nations have the authority to decide how to use the natural resources of less developed countries and the prices they will pay for them. A world in which the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer."

• Another lost hope of the Spanish rightwing
February 21,13
THE political movie starring Esperanza Aguirre, former president of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, now leader of Partido Popular (PP) in the region, who manages to weave her way with ease through a web of espionage and corruption in a burlesque of comedy, until live microphones catch her out, contains a bit of everything.

• Action that began the Angolan people’s struggle
February 1,13
FEBRUARY 4, 1961 marked the beginning of the armed struggle of the Angolan people against Portuguese colonialism.

• AN AFRICAN HERO
Amilcar Cabral: the visionary
February 1,13
THE outstanding African leader Amilcar Cabral was assassinated on January 20, 1973 by agents working for the Portuguese fascist regime, in an attempt to halt the Guinean people’s war of liberation.

• Putin highlights Cuba’s role in Latin America
January 25,13
MOSCOW, Jan 24.—Russian President Vladimir Putin today emphasized Cuba’s growing role in Latin American regional affairs and welcomed the country’s presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) for this year.

• South Africa, surviving the wounds of the past
January 24,13
THIS year South Africa is celebrating the 101st anniversary of the founding of the African National Congress (ANC), the party led by Nelson Mandela which overcame apartheid and is still fighting the legacy of the segregationist regime in the society and economy of this multiethnic country.

• Gun control does not control violence
January 24,13
LITTLE over a month has passed since the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 28 people, 20 of them children. Since then, as always happens in these cases, there have been expressions of grief, promises and debates, but no specific measure which would avert another similar tragedy.

• United States focuses on the Pacific
January 18,13
BARACK Obama's choice of the Asian Pacific for his first official visit after winning the November elections was no accident. He was very clear in stating that he considers the area to be of maximum priority for his administration.

• UK preparing for increase in evictions from 2013
January 18,13
MANY families are already living on the verge of spiraling debt which could end up in them losing their homes, according to Shelter, the key charity organization for homeless people in the United Kingdom. Austerity measures announced for 2013 are forcing more families to fall behind on their mortgage and rent payments.

• Guantánamo detention camp: deaths by dryboarding
January 10,13
IN June of 2006, three prisoners were found dead in the U.S. detention camp on the Guantánamo Naval Base, hanging in their cells from what looked like improvised nooses. Although the Defense Department (DoD) declared "death by suicide," the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) found evidence to the contrary, including the fact that the prisoners’ hands were tied behind their backs.