Cuba approves flights from 9 more American cities

United Airlines spokesman says one its jetliners carrying passengers from Washington to a Mexican beach resort has made an unplanned landing in Cuba due to a strange odor inside the craft.

The statement from spokesman Charles Hobart says United Airlines Flight 831 was carrying 135 passengers route to Cancun, Mexico, when the crew noticed an unfamiliar smell in the cabin.

Air travel between the United States and Cuba will become easier with the opening of charter flights to the forbidden island from an additional nine U.S. cities announced by Cuba authorities on Friday.

Cuban travel agency Havanatur Celimar said it added the cities of Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Baltimore, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Houston and San Juan, Puerto Rico, to the list from where charter flights would be accepted.

Cuba is preparing for an increase in visitors from its long-time ideological foe under a recent loosening of travel restrictions by the Obama administration.

The United States, which maintains comprehensive sanctions on the communist-run island and bans tourism to Cuba, does not allow regular commercial flights between the two countries.

But the Obama administration has lifted all restrictions on Cuban Americans visiting their homeland and allowed religious, academic and other professional travel by Americans to Cuba.

Havana Celimar has a monopoly on the Cuban end of U.S. charter flights and already receives travellers on flights from Miami, New York and Los Angeles.

The number of U.S. citizens visiting Cuba increased last year by 20 percent, to 63,000, according to Cuban statistics.

Some 350,000 Cuban Americans visited Cuba in 2010 after the Obama administration lifted all restrictions on their travel.

The travel opening annoyed Cuban American lawmakers who have introduced legislation in Congress that would reimpose a Bush-era restriction on Cuban American travel to the island of only one visit every three years and more strictly enforce the ban on U.S. travel to Cuba.

The lawmakers argue that the Obama administration is helping prop up the Cuban government, while the White House counters more people-to-people contact is the best way to undermine the island's communist system.

President Barack Obama has threatened to veto any move to undercut his people-to-people policy toward Cuba.

Gazprom Neft takes 30 pct in Cuban shelf oil project

With the approval from the Cuban authorities, Russian firm Gazprom Neft has gained interest in four deepwater oil and gas exploration blocks offshore Cuba.

Gazprom Neft, Cuba's national oil company Cubapetroleo (Cupet) and Malaysia's national oil company Petronas have signed a Supplementary Agreement to the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) on four blocks in the Gulf of Mexico offshore Cuba.

Through the agreement, Gazprom will now hold a 30 percent stake in deepwater Blocks 44, 45, 50 and 51 of the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cuba. Petronas holds the remaining 70 percent interest in the project.

According to Oil & Gas Journal, the blocks are located 100 to 200 miles west of Havana.

To date, 2D seismic has been performed across the acreage, and as of November 2010, an exploration well was scheduled for drilling in 2011.

In addition to the exploration and development of the blocks, the agreement allows for the production of oil through 2037 and the production of natural gas through 2042.

Petronas signed the PSC with the government of Cuba in 2006, and in October 2010, Gazprom Neft and Petronas signed a farm-out agreement and a Heads of Joint Operations Agreement on the leasehold.

After receiving approval from the Cuban authorities, Gazprom Neft and Petronas signed a Deed of Assignment, as well as a Joint Operating Agreement in July 2011.

Gazprom Neft, Cuba's national oil company Cubapetroleo and Malaysia's oil and gas company Petronas signed a production sharing agreement for the project on July 29. Petronas owns 70 percent in the project, Gazprom Neft said in a statement.

The project will be financed by the participants in proportion to their stakes.

Manuel Marrero, a member of the Cuba Commission for the Exclusive Economic Zone in the Gulf of Mexico, said he hoped Gazprom Neft would increase its participation in the project after the discovery of the first oil, which may be drilled at the beginning of 2012.

Gazprom Neft plans to produce about 10 percent of its overall hydrocarbon output abroad by 2020.

Raul Castro Announces Immigration Policy

MIAMI - "Selling an apartment in front of the Habana Libre, excellent condition."

The seller, Marita, is advertising this Havana apartment on revolico.com, an online marketplace similar to Craigslist. She's asking the equivalent of about $57,600.

Real estate sales in Cuba are strictly illegal and have been for the past five decades. But that may change soon. As part of sweeping economic reforms unveiled at the Communist Party Congress in April, Cuba plans to allow the buying and selling of homes and cars.

A recent article in Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, explained that such transactions would be permitted with little government interference beyond getting notary approval, making payment through a state bank and paying an as yet unspecified tax.

The real estate reform has yet to become law, but it's possible it could when the National Assembly convenes this week for a three-day meeting at Havana's Convention Palace. In any case, the government has said a new law will take effect by the end of the year.

Now with the possibility of a true real estate market developing, people have been dusting off property titles and fixing up properties they anticipate putting on the market.

Cuba: Plan for the Implementation of Guidelines to Come Out in September

"We make this step as a contribution to increase the links of the nation with the immigrant community, whose composition has radically changed in relation to the early years of the Revolution," said Raul Castro.

he said that the nation is in the path of changing decisions that played a role at a certain moment and which lasted unnecessarily long.

The president recalled how at that time the US government gave protection to criminals of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship, terrorists, traitors of all type, and encouraged the brain drain of professionals.

He noted that most of the current Cubans migrants are motivated by economic reasons, and most of them maintain their love for the family and homeland, and express solidarity with their fellow country people.

The president stressed that Cuba is the only country of the world whose citizens are allowed to stay and work in US territory without any type of visa by virtue of the criminal 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act.

Raul said this sensitive issue has been the object of political and media manipulation for years in a bid to discredit the Revolution and create conflict with Cubans living abroad.

Cuban Lawmakers' Nod For Economic Reforms

Cuban ruler Raúl Castro said he is working to relax Cuba’s migration policies, almost certainly referring to Cubans abroad who want to travel back to the island but perhaps also — and much more significantly — to Cubans on the island who want to travel abroad.

Castro’s comments to parliament, as reported in the government-run news media, remained unclear late Monday but sparked broad interest among island residents who have long demanded the right to travel abroad without the need for obtaining a government “exit permit.”

He was quoted as saying that the government “is making advances with the reform and elaboration of a series of regulations” on migration that have lasted “unnecessarily” for a long time. But the reports gave no details on exactly who would benefit.

“We take this step as a contribution to the increase in links between the nation and the émigré community, whose makeup has changed radically since the first decades of the revolution,” Castro reportedly said in comments that seemed to indicate that the eased regulations would apply to Cubans abroad.

“In their overwhelming majority Cubans today emigrate because of economic reasons, and almost all of them preserve their love for family and country,” he added. The government for decades referred to Cubans who moved abroad as “counterrevolutionaries” and “worms”

Estimates of the number of Cubans who are living abroad and have been denied Havana permission to return range from 67,000 to 200,000, including “rafters” or others who left the island illegally and those who left legally but stayed abroad more than 11 months.

His comments that the “updating” of the migration regulations would retain measures to “defend” the revolution also seemed to refer to Cubans living abroad, because radical exiles are not allowed to return legally to Cuba.

Earlier addressing lawmakers, Castro indicated that changes could well be introduced to Cuba's controversial travel and emigration rules. According to him, the time had come for ushering in political and social reforms and warned that those trying to undermine the reform process would be prosecuted. "Let's clean our heads of all sorts of nonsense," he said.

Besides, Castro told the National Assembly that the government was "working to orchestrate the modernisation" of the country's migration policies. For long, rights groups had flayed Cuba's emigration policy which required its citizens to secure government's prior permission for traveling abroad.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly is set to discuss a slew of proposals put forward by the President which include downsizing of the country's massive government workforce, restricting state involvement in key areas like farming, retail and infrastructure before giving its formal endorsement.

Even as the state-controlled enterprises move out in order to give space for small-scale businesses, the government will also phase out state subsidies for goods and public utility services.

Analysts though say the implementation of economic reforms mooted by Castro will be easier said than done as it is likely to encounter stiff resistance from party officials who face the prospect of unemployment.

The septuagenarian Raul Castro, who had earlier served as Cuba's Defense Minister, took over as President from his brother Fidel after the latter was forced to step down over health concerns.

United flight diverts to Cuba

United Airlines flight travelling between Washington's Dulles International Airport and Cancun, Mexico was diverted to Havana, Cuba after a strange odor was detected on board.

The Airbus 320, carrying 135 passengers and five crew members, landed in Havana Sunday after the crew noticed a burning smell in the cockpit.

A United Airlines spokesman said that in order to be safe the pilots decided to land the aircraft at the nearest available airport”.

Gloria Berbena,a spokeswoman for the U.S. Interests section in Cuba, said a second plane arrived from the United States later Sunday and flew the passengers out.

U.S. law restricts the travel of American citizens to Cuba, although there are frequent charter flights between the two countries.

United Flight 831 was bound for the Mexican beach resort of Cancun, but diverted to the Cuban capital after the flight crew detected "a strange odor" in the cockpit, The Associated Press reports.

"In an abundance of caution, the pilots decided to land the aircraft at the nearest available airport," United spokesman Charles Hobart says in a statement to AP.

United adds to The Washington Post that the Airbus A320 "landed routinely and safely in Havana and we have reaccommodated our customers on a different flight."

CNN reports United had to bring in another plane to accommodate the passengers from the diverted flight. The Post says the A320 operating Flight 831 landed in Havana just after noon local time and was on the ground at least through 5 p.m.

Regularly scheduled commercial airline flights are not permitted to fly between the U.S. and Cuba, per the U.S. trade embargo on the island nation. Certain charter flights are permitted to fly between the nations, though there are restrictions on who can purchase travel on those flights.

AP adds "although the United States and Cuba are bitter Cold War foes, Cuba has a tradition of hospitality and is a signatory to international aviation accords. On the day of the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, Havana offered to let the United States use its landing fields because U.S. airports were in a state of chaos. Washington did not take Cuba up on the offer.

Trailer For George Lucas’ Tuskegee Airmen Film “Red Tails” Arrives

Cuba Gooding Jr. is the first black man. He was the first black cook to fight racism by exercising his right to frantically shoot at Japanese fighter pilots and be a hero in Pearl Harbor . He was the first black Naval officer to fight racism by exercising his right to to dive to great depths with no air to be a hero in Men of Honor (don’t fret if the trailer looks a tad familiar).

Clearly George Lucas wanted some of this tasty racism-fighting chocolate, so has finally moved on his version of the legend of the Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails, slated for a January 2012 release. The PR world is abuzz with the latest spin on this drastic step towards the mainstream. Apparently Lucas felt so very trapped by the Star Wars franchise that made him a billionaire and a household name. So he has torn himself away from tales of the force to tell the story of Gooding Jr’s force of nature.

Or has he? Examining the trailer on a visual level, the aerial scenes look a hell of a lot like the Star Wars space battle scenes. But to be absolutely fair, there are only so many ways to shoot a cockpit, space-jet or otherwise.

Well, whadaya know? Just mere minutes after my post announcing the official release date of the film, and that I’d be keeping an eye out for the trailer, which was set to debut this evening, the trailer drops on Yahoo Movies, and it’s embedded below.

The George Lucas-produced Tuskegee Airmen actioner, Red Tails, directed by Anthony Hemingway, written by John Ridley, with a cast that includes cast includes: Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Nate Parker, David Oyelowo, Tristan Wilds, Method Man, Lee Tergesen, Ne-Yo, Elijah Kelley, Andre Royo and Jesse Williams.

Cuba should free Alan Gross

The seller, Marita, is advertising this Havana apartment on revolico.com, an online marketplace that’s kind of like a Cuban Craigslist. She’s asking the equivalent of around $57,600 in convertible Cuban pesos.

Of course, at the moment real estate sales in Cuba are strictly illegal and have been for the past five decades. But that may change soon. As part of sweeping economic reforms unveiled at the Communist Party Congress in April, Cuba plans to allow the buying and selling of homes and cars.

A July 1 article in Granma, the Communist Party newspaper, painted the broad brush strokes of the real estate reform: such transactions would be permitted with little government interference beyond getting notary approval, making payment through a state bank and paying an as yet unspecified tax.

The real estate reform has yet to become law, but it’s possible it could when the National Assembly, Cuba’s parliament, convenes Monday for a three-day meeting at Havana’s Convention Palace. In any case, the government has said a new law will take effect by the end of the year.

This potential sea change has set off a flurry of activity on both sides of the Florida Straits. For years, Cuban-Americans have been funneling money to relatives to fix up tired properties or for under-the-table payments to “buy’’ a home or sweeten a permuta, or swap, the accepted form of acquiring Cuban real estate.

Now with the possibility of a true real estate market developing, people have been dusting off property titles or trying to find them and have been busy fixing up properties they anticipate putting on the market, said Antonio R. Zamora, a Miami lawyer who specializes in foreign investment.

“A lot of money is coming from Miami — some of it’s speculative,’’ said Zamora, who visited Cuba recently.

Some exiles say they have made under-the-table payments to purchase beach homes or other properties from family or friends with the understanding that some day they will own the homes outright. But they have no official paperwork to acknowledge such transactions.

In these cases, it should be buyer beware, said George Harper, a Miami attorney who left Cuba when he was 17. “That’s all well and good but any deal is subject to what the local laws are.’’

The expected law does not allow foreign ownership. The guidelines announced in Granma said that foreigners and Cubans living abroad can’t own property unless they are permanent residents of Cuba. Cubans will be allowed to own only one home and they can inherit a dwelling, even if the relatives of the deceased don’t live in the home, according to Granma.

There are plenty of humanitarian reasons to release Mr. Gross, who has been confined for 19 months. Somewhat overweight when he was arrested, Mr. Gross has lost 100 pounds, according to his wife and other American visitors who have been allowed to meet with him; he also suffers from gout, ulcers and arthritis. His daughter is struggling with cancer, and his mother is reported to be in poor health.

Cuban authorities have portrayed Mr. Gross as a spy involved in an enterprise aimed at undermining the regime. That seems unlikely in the extreme. In fact, Mr. Gross, a veteran development worker who had minimal command of Spanish, was part of a democratization project of the sort the U.S. government runs in countries all over the world.

At the time of his arrest, Mr. Gross was working for Development Alternatives Inc., a Bethesda firm that had won a $6 million government contract to promote democracy in Cuba. His work consisted mainly of providing computers and satellite phones to Cuban Jews, a community thought to number about 1,500, so they could access the Internet, whose use is restricted in Cuba, and contact Jewish communities beyond Cuba’s shores. Not exactly a cloak-and-dagger project likely to bring the Castro brothers to their knees.

The Obama administration has made it clear that any improvement in relations with Cuba is on hold pending Mr. Gross’s release. That’s a fitting response to the communist regime’s knee-jerk behavior in persecuting an American whose “crime,” if any, may have been an excess of naivete.

Cubana de Aviación S.A.

Cubana de Aviación S.A., commonly known as Cubana, is Cuba's largest airline and flag carrier. The airline was founded on 8 October 1929, and has its corporate headquarters in Havana. Its main base is at José Martí International Airport. It was a founder and is a current member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Association of Aeronautical Telecommunications(SITA) and the International Association of Latin American Air Transportation (AITAL).

Originally a private company owned by Cuban investors, Cubana has been wholly owned by the Cuban government since May 1959 and celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2009. The airline has 32 international representatives and 13 offices in Cuba, and its current official name is Cubana de Aviación S.A. It was the first airline of The Americas to operate Russian aircraft.

History

Cubana was established on 8 October 1929 as Compañía Nacional Cubana de Aviación Curtiss, indicating its association with the Curtiss Robin aircraft manufacturing company. It was one of the earliest airlines to emerge in Latin America. Pan American Airways (then known as Pan American Airways System or PAA) acquired Cubana in 1932, and the word Curtiss was deleted from the airline's name. Cubana therefore became a subsidiary of Pan American Airways. In 1944, the first International Conference on Civil Aviation was convened, which later would lead to the creation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, currently based in Montreal, Canada). Cuba was a participant in this conference and a founding member of ICAO. In April 1945, the conference that created the International Air Transport Association (IATA) was held in Havana. Cubana became a founding member of IATA, and participated in the creation of that organization through its involvement with the Havana conference and the resulting accords. Both conferences and the organizations they spawned helped establish Cubana as an internationally recognized airline company.

In May 1945 Cubana started its first scheduled international flights to Miami, using Douglas DC-3 aircraft. Cubana was the first Latin American airline to establish scheduled services to Miami. In April 1948, a transatlantic route was started between Havana and Madrid (via Bermuda, the Azores and Lisbon) using Douglas DC-4 aircraft. The Madrid route was extended to Rome in 1950. The new route to Europe made Cubana one of the earliest Latin American carriers to establish scheduled transatlantic service.

In May 1959, the revolutionary government decided to take over Cubana, expropriating all the airline's private investors without compensation. The private passenger airline Aerovías Q and private cargo carriers Cuba Aeropostal and Expreso Aéreo Interamericano, were then merged into Cubana. Despite these problems, in 1961 Cubana expanded its scheduled transatlantic services to Prague (apart from its existing Madrid route) using its Bristol Britannia jet-props. Cubana then ceded one of its Britannias to Czechoslovak Airlines (CSA) so that it could start its own Prague-Havana flights, in cooperation with Cubana's services on that route. Cubana's crews trained CSA personnel in the operation of the Britannias. This allowed CSA to establish its first-ever scheduled transatlantic service in 1962.

With the U.S. breaking relations (in 1961) and the imposition of the U.S. embargo on Cuba (in 1962), Cubana turned to the Soviet Union to obtain new aircraft. Cubana's cooperation made it possible for Aeroflot Soviet Airlines to establish 18-hour non-stop scheduled services between Moscow and Havana in 1963 which were the longest non-stop flights in the world at that time. Cooperation with the East German airline Interflug made it possible for this carrier to establish its first scheduled transatlantic services, linking East Berlin with Havana.

In the late 1970s, Cuba began operating its own long distance passenger jet services using the Ilyushin Il-62 (first flight in 1963, range of 10,300 km). The Il-62 had been the first plane to be put into long distance jet service by a number of other countries. Cubana operated 28 examples of this airliner between 1979 and 2011, including 11 early version Il-62s and 17 later model Il-62Ms, of which it owned 19 outright, the remaining nine leased either from Aeroflot or the Romanian national airline Tarom. After the 1990s, spare parts for Cubana's Soviet era aircraft became increasingly harder to source. Limited financial resources and lack of Western financing to replace these aircraft coupled with restrictions imposed by the U.S. embargo on the sale of American-built aircraft and components (engines and avionics) made it necessary to keep the Il-62Ms and other Soviet era planes in service despite their age. In the early 2000s Cubana refurbished some of its old Il-62/Il-62Ms to use on international routes (the last two were retired in March 2011) and in 2004, it embarked upon a long-term renovation. The strategy is based on the purchase of $100 million a year in new generation Russian-built aircraft until 2012. By 2012 Cubana will completely replace its old Soviet era aircraft with new generation Russian airliners. As part of its renovation strategy, Cubana has sought to upgrade its technical support capabilities. The airline established a joint venture company with Iberia Airlines of Spain in 2005, to maintain and overhaul Western-built aircraft, including all Airbus and Boeing models. Between 2000 and 2009 Cubana operated services to Iraq but these have since been cancelled. Cubana used to operate services to Asia which was the Latin American airlines to fly normally to Asia. Later, Aeroméxico started services to Narita International Airport in Japan from Tijuana and Mexico City.

In December 2005, Cubana received its first Ilyushin Il-96-300, registered CU-T1250. The aircraft made its first official flight in January 2006, covering the Havana - Buenos Aires route. The second Il-96 was received in March 2006 and a confirmation was signed for two additional ones, an Il-96 of the last two orders was received in 2007 and the remaining one is yet to be delivered. Three Tupolev Tu-204 were also ordered in 2006, two passenger version and one cargo version for Cubana Cargo. The Tupolev Tu-204 cargo-version was delivered in August 2007. During the August 2007 MAKS Airshow Cubana signed a $150 million contract for the purchase and confirmation of 2 Tupolev Tu-204 and 3 Antonov An-148 aircraft, to be delivered between 2008 and 2011 and becoming one of the Antonov An-148 launch customers. More orders for new aircraft will be made over the next 7 years until the conclusion of the Russian-Cuban aviation agreements signed in 2006.

Destinations

Cubana operates flights to over 30 destinations in Cuba, Europe, the Caribbean, North, Central and South America.

Further information: Cubana de Aviación destinations

Codeshare agreements

At July 2011, Cubana has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

AeroCaribbean (domestic, Caribbean and Central American destinations)

Aeroflot (Moscow - Havana)

Air Europa (Madrid - Havana)

Blue Panorama Airlines (Rome - Havana)

Conviasa (Caracas - Havana)

Copa Airlines (Panama City - Havana)

Lacsa - Grupo TACA (San Jose, Costa Rica - Havana)

Fleet

A Cubana Yakovlev Yak-42D at Antonio Maceo Airport, Cuba. (2007)

The Cubana fleet includes the following aircraft (as of 14 December 2009):

Cubana de Aviación Fleet

Aircraft Total Orders Passengers Notes

J Y Total

Airbus A320-200 2 — 12 138 150 Both leased from Grupo TACA - EI-TAG - EI-TAB

Antonov An-148 — 3 N/a

Antonov An-24RV 2 — — 48 48 Replacement aircraft: Antonov 148

ATR 42-500 1 — N/a Operated by Aerogaviota

Ilyushin Il-96-300 3 — 18 244 262 CU-T1250, CU-T1251, CU-T1254

Tupolev Tu-204-100E 2 — 12 212 224 CU-T1701, CU-T1702

Tupolev Tu-204-100CE (Cargo) 2 — — — — CU-C1700, CU-C1703

Yakovlev Yak-42D 5 — — 120 120 CU-T1704, CU-T1272, CU-T1279

CU-T1705, CU-T1255, CU-T1247

Cuba Jails Airline, Pharma Execs for Corruption

Corruption convictions in Cuba, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Jose Heriberto Prieto was the former director of an airline, Cubana de Aviacion. He was its cargo director. It also erroneously identified a company mentioned in the case, Heber Biotec SA, as Herbiotec SA.

Cuban courts have convicted airline and pharmaceutical executives of corruption and sentenced them to three to 13 years in prison.

The stiffest sentence is 13 years for Cubana de Aviacion director Jose Heriberto Prieto.

An announcement on state television Friday night also mentions sentences for various officials from pharmaceutical company Herbiotec SA.

It says the penalties correspond to the seriousness of the offenses and "numerous losses to the economy."

Cuba has recently seen a series of convictions in an anti-corruption campaign that has swept up two Chilean businessmen and a Frenchman who was accused of laundering drug money.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Unearthly and Red Zone Cuba comes in August

Shout! Factory is turning to the Cold War with Mystery Science Theater 3000's latest DVD efforts, so get prepared to say "Do svidaniya, comrade." The latest MST3K releases will come in the form of the Red Invasion scare-tactic, Red Zone Cuba, and a 1957 horror flick about a mad scientist (John Carradine) whose experiments with immortality accidentally produce mutants: The Unearthly.

Both of these "wonderful" titles will receive the Mystery Science Theater treatment, as the Satellite of Love crew will orbit space and riff on these horrendous monstrosities relentlessly. The DVDs will be sold separately for $14.99 each through the Shout! Factory online store on August 16, 2011. You will even receive a free MST3K stress ball if you order through them directly.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Unearthly, MSTie favorite actor Tor Johnson costars as MSTie favorite character Lobo in this 1957 horror flick about a mad scientist (John Carradine) whose experiments with immortality accidentally produce mutants.

As Dr. Forrester says: “It’s hard to keep down.” But Joel, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot prove once again that laughter is the best anti-nausea medicine. Includes the shorts “Posture Pals” and “Appreciating Our Parents.”

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 series was created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Jim Mallon. After a year on KTMA TV in Minneapolis, its national broadcast life began in 1989 on the Comedy Channel (later to become Comedy Central), where it ran for seven seasons. The show’s final three seasons aired on the Sci-Fi Channel. The premise of the series features a hapless man who is trapped by mad scientists on a satellite in space and forced to watch old B-movies of questionable worth.

To keep sane, he’s built two robot sidekicks, and together they do a running commentary on the films, affectionately mocking their flaws with inspired wisecracks and acting as a demented movie theater peanut gallery. Series creator Hodgson originally played the stranded man, Joel Robinson. When he left in 1993, series head writer Mike Nelson replaced him as the new B-movie victim Mike Nelson, and continued in the role for the rest of the show’s run. The format proved to be popular and remarkably durable. During its 11-year run and 198 episodes (including one feature film), MST3K attained a loyal fan base and critical acclaim. The series won a Peabody Award in 1993, and was nominated for writing Emmys® in 1994 and 1995.

Shout! Factory is a diversified entertainment company devoted to producing, uncovering and revitalizing the very best of pop culture. Founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos have spent their careers sharing their music, television and film faves with discerning consumers the world over.

Shout! Factory’s DVD offerings serve up classic, contemporary and cult TV series, riveting sports programs, live music, animation and documentaries in lavish packages crammed with extras. The company’s audio catalogue boasts GRAMMY®-nominated boxed sets, new releases from storied artists, lovingly assembled album reissues and indispensable “best of” compilations.

Cuba: For macho island, a shift on civil unions

Guantánamo, Cuba, an important eastern city near the eponymous Naval Base, the streets recently reverberated with shouts of “Down with Fidel! Down with Raúl!” and “The streets belong to the people!” as dozens marched in open defiance of the iron-fisted rule of the Castro brothers. Even the physical attacks hurled by the regime’s paid thugs did not prevent the march from continuing.

Over the past few months similar protests have taken place across cities and towns throughout the island. What do they portend?

To most people, popular uprisings against dictatorships appear spontaneous because they capture our attention at their moment of fruition, when massive crowds in public plazas attract television cameras. In truth, uprisings are the result of many years of individuals struggling to overcome personal fear, and of tenacious organizational work by small groups.

Resistance networks that grow through repressed societies act like arteries that arouse a subjugated people, a key event or moment serving as the critical spark, the catalyst for the awakening. The death last year of prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo, an Afro-Cuban bricklayer, perpetrated by the authorities’ denial of water for 18 days in an attempt to force him to stop a hunger strike, set off a wave of street protests and hunger strikes. International condemnation forced the dictatorship to release hundreds of political prisoners. Many of those released were pressured into exile, but a hard core of political prisoners chose to remain on the island, their leadership qualities thereby growing exponentially in the eyes of the population.

The Castro dictatorship is once more trying to stem the growth of such resistance in Cuba through persecution and brutality because popular demonstrations, unprecedented in number and message, have erupted throughout the island, among them:

The announcement was made by Mariela Castro, daughter of Raul Castro and the director of Cuba’s national sex education center, during an interview with Spanish broadcaster Cadena Ser earlier this month. Castro, the island’s leading gay rights advocate, said Cuban authorities are already studying the proposal in preparation for the upcoming Community Party conference on Jan. 28.

“This is a historic opportunity, and I think we’re close to having draft legislation,” said Castro, who also revealed in the interview that gay Cubans can serve in the military. “We’ve been working on this issue for a long time, with a lot of activism. We’re starting to see results and a political solution.”

Certainly the recognition of same-sex civil unions would be a landmark achievement — for Mariela Castro and the island’s gay rights activists. But it also prompts the question: Why has it taken Cuba so long?

After all, six other Latin American nations already recognize same-sex civil unions: Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico (in certain states). Why then is Cuba, a largely secular society where left-wing politics have dominated for 50 years, still slow to grant full legal equality for gays and lesbians? As Castro told the interviewer, “A socialist society can’t be a homophobic one.”

But it has been one in the past.

In the decades following Fidel Castro’s 1959 Cuban Revolution, gay Cubans endured various forms of harassment, and many in the late 1960s were sent to military labor camps to be “rehabilitated” by grueling agricultural work. The socialist “New Man” envisioned by Che Guevara was strong, self-sacrificing, masculine — and unambiguously heterosexual.

When the Cuban government screened the film “Brokeback Mountain” on national television in 2008, church spokesman Orlando Marquez wrote [6] “I respect homosexual individuals, but not the promotion of homosexuality. We’re going down a dangerous path when our own state institutions promote programs that undermine the foundations of our society.”

“While homosexual behavior isn’t new,” he wrote, “the international agenda that promotes homosexuality at all levels is.”

Marquez, who is also the editor of Palabra Nueva, the church’s magazine, declined to comment on Mariela Castro’s announcement, referring inquiries about the Church’s views to previously published statements opposing same-sex unions, including declarations on the subject by the Vatican and Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega.

In Cuba’s gay community, the reaction to Mariela Castro’s announcement has been enthusiastic, but also mixed. Ailec Garcia, 32, said that while her partner of seven years was eager to formalize their relationship, it wasn’t a priority for her.

“It’s hard to get excited about it when you still live with your parents and can’t think about having a house of your own,” Garcia said, explaining how Cuba’s miserably low salaries and acute housing shortages make sobering realities of many couples’ domestic aspirations, whether they’re gay or straight.

Castro did not go into detail about what legal benefits the unions might bring. But Cuba is also a country where the practice of marriage has also been in dramatic decline and many heterosexual couples go unwed, even after they’ve had children, since they can’t afford to have a wedding and would derive few legal benefits.

Still, Garcia said, the legalization of same-sex civil unions would carry enormous symbolic importance for the country. “We still have a long way to go toward eliminating machista attitudes and taboos,” she said. “But it would be a huge step forward.

Cuba prepares for parliamentary session on economic reforms

HAVANA — Cuban courts have convicted airline and pharmaceutical executives of corruption and sentenced them to three to 13 years in prison.

The stiffest sentence is 13 years for Cubana de Aviacion director Jose Heriberto Prieto.

An announcement on state television Friday night also mentions sentences for various officials from pharmaceutical company Herbiotec SA.

It says the penalties correspond to the seriousness of the offenses and “numerous losses to the economy.”

Cuba has recently seen a series of convictions in an anti-corruption campaign that has swept up two Chilean businessmen and a Frenchman who was accused of laundering drug money.

Castro will address the three-day session of the National Assembly of People’s Power, which opens Monday, to report on his reform program to the one government institution that has not yet approved it.

A full congress of the ruling Communist Party in April approved a list of more than 300 “guidelines” for the reforms, designed to yank the Soviet-styled economy out of its deep and long-running slump.

The guidelines include deep cuts in state subsidies and payrolls, giving more autonomy to government-owned enterprises and allowing expansions of foreign investments and small private enterprises such as barber shops.

But Cuban news media reports Friday indicated that while the campaign is making progress in some areas, it is falling short in many others.

Castro, who has repeatedly branded corruption as an impediment to the reforms, warned his cabinet last Saturday that prosecutors and judges will have to crack down on the shady dealings, Granma reported.

Granma and Juventud Rebelde also reported the Cuban economy grew in the first six months of 2011, but gave no figures except for some of the sectors that fell short of the government’s central planning goals.

Of all the construction materials that the government plans to sell to private individuals this year, only 15.6 percent had been sold as of the end of June, according to the newspapers.

And of the 23.394 housing units that state enterprises plan to build this year, only 28 were in fact finished in the first six months, they added. Private builders did even worse, finishing only 16 percent of their 3,206 planned units.

Granma also reported that costly agricultural imports will have to increase because of continuing shortfalls in agricultural production, despite Castro’s two-year-old program of leasing fallow state lands to private farmers.

Cuba will have to spend about $1.5 billion this year to import at least 60 percent of the food its people consume, according to government estimates. Other estimates put imports at up to 80 percent of consumption.

Granma and Juventud Rebelde usually report on the weekend cabinet meetings in their Monday or Tuesday editions, and there was no immediate explanation for the delay this week. Last month, Granma reported it would soon publish “important news” from the cabinet, but then published nothing.

More details on the reforms are expected to be made public when Vice President Marino Murillo, Cuba’s “reforms tsar,” addresses the parliament, which meets only twice a year for one-week sessions.

About 600 members have been meeting in committees and subcommittees behind closed doors this week to discuss what Granma describes as “dozens of issues, most linked to the economic-social transformations under way.

Cuba approves flights from 9 more American cities

ABC Charters airline said that it will offer flights between the international airport in Tampa, Florida, and Cuba, possibly starting Sept. 10, the Tampa Tribune reported on Thursday.

The Tampa airport this past March received the official authorization of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to operate direct flights to Cuba.

According to the president of ABC Charters, Tessie Aral, the firm will begin with one flight per week using a Boeing 737 that seats 145.

The company, which will resume its operations from this airport for the first time in 50 years, forecasts that it will be able to increase its service to and from Havana to two flights a week in October.

Ticket prices have not yet been established, but Aral said that they will range between $399 and $459 for a roundtrip.

Tampa International in March also began handling direct flights between the United States and the Caribbean island along with Miami, New York's JFK, Los Angeles and the international airport in Fort Myers, Florida.

Cuban travel agency Havanatur Celimar said it added the cities of Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Baltimore, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Houston and San Juan, Puerto Rico, to the list from where charter flights would be accepted.

Cuba is preparing for an increase in visitors from its long-time ideological foe under a recent loosening of travel restrictions by the Obama administration.

The United States, which maintains comprehensive sanctions on the communist-run island and bans tourism to Cuba, does not allow regular commercial flights between the two countries.

But the Obama administration has lifted all restrictions on Cuban Americans visiting their homeland and allowed religious, academic and other professional travel by Americans to Cuba.

Havana Celimar has a monopoly on the Cuban end of U.S. charter flights and already receives travelers on flights from Miami, New York and Los Angeles.

The number of U.S. citizens visiting Cuba increased last year by 20 percent, to 63,000, according to Cuban statistics.

Some 350,000 Cuban Americans visited Cuba in 2010 after the Obama administration lifted all restrictions on their travel.

Lawmakers argue that the Obama administration is helping prop up the Cuban government, while the White House counters more people-to-people contact is the best way to undermine the island's communist system.

President Barack Obama has threatened to veto any move to undercut his people-to-people policy toward Cuba.

Cuba has said it had 2.53 million tourists in 2010, with Canada the largest provider at nearly 945,000, followed by Britain at 174,000 and Italy at 112,000.

Tourism is one of Cuba's most important earners of foreign exchange, with revenues of $2.2 billion last year, and an important provider of jobs.

Chavez in middle class appeal

Merida, July 29th 2011 On Thursday Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez celebrated his 57th birthday by making a number of public announcements; reiterating his plans to stand in next year’s presidential elections, calling for an end to the sectarianism and dogmatism that could prevent “the construction of a new hegemony” in Venezuela, and setting a new date for the meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Nations (CELAC), the regional organization to include all American states except the United States and Canada.


Calling to greet those gathered at a meeting between Venezuelan Executive Vice President Elias Jaua and representatives of Venezuela’s agricultural sector, Chavez told listeners and viewers that he has every intention of running for reelection in December 2012.


“I will run for reelection and, God willing and with my determination to live, I will be reelected by a large majority of the people. I invite you to join me,” he said.


Chavez, who spent the day with his family at the Miraflores Presidential Palace, told his supporters that winning next year’s presidential elections would require unity among different sectors of Venezuela’s left and an end to “sectarianism and dogmatism.”


The Venezuelan leader made his comments a day after he celebrated his 57th birthday, when - appearing in yellow rather than his characteristic red shirt - he told a rally of cheering supporters that he was in no mood to leave office in the near future.


In Friday's telephone interview, Mr Chavez said the treatment to remove a tumour had led him to radically change his life towards a "more diverse, more reflective and multi-faceted" period.


He told his supporters to eliminate divisions and dogma, and end what he called the abuse of symbols such as the term "socialist".


"Why do we have to always have to wear a red shirt?" said Mr Chavez. "And the same goes for the word 'socialism'."


The president cited the example of a mayor in the governing party who inaugurated a "Socialist Avenue", which Mr Chavez described as "stupid".


"We need to reflect and introduce changes in our discourse and in our actions."


Cuban lessons
Mr Chavez, who came to power in 1999, said the private sector and the middle classes were "vital" to his political project.


He said it was a shame that attempts to be more inclusive of these groups in society had been criticised by some in official circles in Venezuela.


"Raul Castro is leading a process of self-criticism," said Mr Chavez, hinting that Venezuela could learn from the reforms being undertaken by the president of Cuba, who has made some concessions to the private sector since taking over from Fidel Castro in 2006.


Mr Chavez said his government needed to correct the perception that small businesses would be taken over by the state.


"We have to make sure no-one believes that," he said. "We have to convince them about our real project, that we need this sector and that we want to acknowledge their contribution.

Debt focus shifts to Senate

Warring House and Senate votes late Friday set up a tense weekend of confrontation — and what the White House hopes are still meaningful negotiations — before markets reopen Monday, one day before the threat of default.

Stocks slid for the sixth day in a row as anxiety grew on Wall Street, and Washington’s once dry debt debate has grown into a high stakes game of political chess quite unlike anything the city has seen in decades.

The House moved first, narrowly approving a Republican-backed debt ceiling bill but only after Speaker John Boehner had to tack right again by adding a provision threatening default next year if Congress doesn’t first approve a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

The 218-210 vote was quickly followed by a 59-41 Senate roll call tabling the House bill — at least for the moment. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid set in motion a 1 a.m. Sunday cloture vote on his own debt ceiling and deficit reduction package estimated between $2.2 trillion and $2.4 trillion.

Reid’s timing was ominous, suggesting the two sides are each trying to back the other into a corner still — without reaching a meaningful deal. But the House bill could yet be resurrected and Republicans predicted it could still be amended as part of a final compromise negotiated by all sides over the weekend.

McConnell's office off the Senate floor in the Capitol saw a steady stream of GOP senators coming and going. Several senators were called for a lunch meeting with McConnell as conversations turned to amending the Reid bill in a way that could win Republican support.

Boehner received a standing ovation when he, also, visited the Senate GOP lunch. But in public comments, several Senate Republicans were sharply critical of the proceedings in the House and suggested they could be open to a compromise with the Democrats.

"What's happening in the House is kind of pathetic," said Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.). "We need to get everybody to work together for the good of the country, not any political party or interest."

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) said that "we are all troubled with the delay in resolving this issue."

The goal, congressional officials indicated, was to develop a compromise that could pass the Senate early next week as the clock ticks down and then go back to the House and pass with a coalition of Democratic and Republican votes.

Any such bill would lose a substantial number of House Republicans aligned with the "tea party," who, as the past week has shown, are willing to defy GOP leaders. Many did not view Boehner's bill as conservative enough. Some don't want to raise the debt ceiling at all.

Obama, in a morning statement from the White House, called on Congress to compromise.

"We are almost out of time," Obama said. "I urge Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to find common ground on a plan that can get support — that can get support from both parties in the House –- a plan that I can sign by Tuesday."

The few remaining days before Tuesday's deadline are about finessing specific policy revisions to build political support, but also involve the strategic calculation of running out the clock.

The 11th hour can be a forceful motivator in Washington, particularly over a weekend with jittery financial markets preparing to reopen Monday morning. All sides say they want to avoid putting the economy in further distress. Yet, few senators were willing to publicly acknowledge what changes to the agreement were needed to secure their votes.

The negotiations are focusing on a menu of "trigger" mechanisms to bring about further deficit-reduction measures, without resorting to holding the debt ceiling hostage to those votes.

Reid and McConnell have 24 hours to craft such an agreement. One trigger under discussion would mandate deficit reduction measures if the new committee's recommendations for cuts are not approved by Congress.

Another option would allow a bipartisan group of five Democratic and five Republican senators to force a vote in that body on recommendations it develops if the new congressional committee stalls. Deficits could be reduced by spending cuts or tax revenue increases or both.

The compromise designers also could choose to lay out a "parade of horribles" that no one wants — unacceptable reductions in Medicare or tax hikes — to force lawmakers to agree to less onerous steps. Cuts in defense spending and transportation projects are other possibilities.

Obama wants what he calls a "balanced approach" to the trigger mechanism, according to Democratic officials familiar with the situation. Officials at every level of the White House were involved in talks with Congress, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.