CNN's Patrick Oppmann reports on Pope Benedict's Havana Mass and his meetings with the Castro brothers.
Greeted by throngs of Catholic worshipers from across the region, Pope Benedict XVI ended his two-country tour in Havana's Revolution Plaza with a reference to what he described as a need for "authentic freedom."
A top Cuban official told reporters in Havana on Tuesday that his country's political system is "sustainable" and that it will not change.
Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Havana on Tuesday amid speculation over whether he will meet with the island's former president, Fidel Castro, and how far he'll press the country for greater political and religious freedoms.
Life's not always a beach. The Caribbean may win hearts for its white-sand beaches on perfect turquoise coves and high-end villas with moored yachts, but there's another part of the story: its towns.
Cuban authorities have released dozens of members of the "Ladies in White" group after detaining them, a dissident said Monday.
Dozens of members of the group "Ladies in White" were detained Sunday in Havana and several -- including the group's leader -- were unaccounted for and believed to be under arrest, a group member said.
In his first live public comments since undergoing surgery here on Tuesday to remove a tumor from his abdomen, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that he was on the path to recovery.
Three people were killed and six were critically injured when a residential building collapsed in Havana, state television reported Wednesday.
Whether it's balanced on the rim of a volcano or made of crystallized salt, the right hotel can provide you with a good year's worth of bragging material. These are the kinds of places you have to go at least once, if only to say you have.
I believe in remakes. "Father of the Bride," "Ocean's Eleven," "The Parent Trap"... Each version was a classic in its own time.
For the first time in 50 years, Cubans will be allowed to buy and sell their homes, as CNN's Shasta Darlington reports.
Olivia Sersute and her sister have shared the same home on the second floor of a faded Havana mansion since they were children and even after getting married and having kids of their own.
What is your favorite neighborhood? Why?
Just who are the Africans who helped shape the Americas, and where did they come from?
Young and old burn up the dance floor at Havana's Las Canitas nightclub every weekend. On a recent Saturday night, half of the dancers twirling to the latest salsa hits were from Switzerland.
The wide avenues of Havana became a colorful mosaic of the faces and flags of throngs of Cuban people -- 600,000 of them, according to state media -- as people gathered to commemorate International Workers' Day, or May Day, on Sunday.
As Havana prepares for its first Communist Party Congress in 14 years in April, the United States should seize the opportunity to positively influence the economic blueprint the party is expected to approve.
In October, CNN's Max Foster talked to Shasta Darlington about Cuba's attempts to revitalize its economy.
Another four Cuban political prisoners are expected to leave Havana for Madrid, Spain, no later than Wednesday, the head of Cuba's independent Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation told CNN.
Spain's foreign minister has agreed to take in the 52 Cuban political prisoners who are set for release, Spanish diplomatic sources said Thursday.
Fifty-two Cuban political prisoners are set to be freed and will be allowed to leave the country, Cuba's Roman Catholic church announced Wednesday in a written statement. It would be one of Cuba's largest prisoner releases in recent history.
Fisherman Mario Lopez has relied on the waters off Cuba's northern coasts for decades.
Fears over oil spill reach Cuba as fishermen and natural habitats face potential threats. CNN's David Ariosto reports.
"I was caught because I was an illegal," explained a bicycle taxi driver as he gripped the rusted blue handle-bars of his vehicle in Havana's Central Park. "And because I'd been here several times before, I was deported back."
CNN's David Ariosto reports on a Cuban law that has led to the deportation of thousands from Havana.
Tens of Thousands have turned out to celebrate International Workes Day in Cuba.
Thousands packed Havana's Revolution Square on Saturday for International Workers' Day, drawing hordes of Cuban demonstrators, spectators, and trade unionists from around the world -- including the United States and the United Kingdom.
Cubans hit the polls across the country Sunday, voting in municipal assembly elections that the government hopes will soften criticism about democracy -- or lack thereof -- in the communist nation.
Cuban cigar makers battle sales slump with new smoke for women. CNN's Shasta Darlington reports.
Faced with a two-year slump in sales, Cuban cigar makers have unveiled a new weapon in the hunt for consumers: Julieta, a slim smoke made just for her.
A Cuban dissident says he will starve himself to death unless the government releases 26 political prisoners.
Cuban President Raul Castro said Wednesday he regretted the death of a prisoner after a prolonged hunger strike, even as human rights activists reported 30 people were detained on the way to the dissident's funeral.
Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died Tuesday after an 80-day hunger strike to demand better jail conditions, according to dissidents.
Clad in a gold sequined bikini and topped with a feathered headdress, a curvy cabaret dancer strutted onstage.
International ballet star Carlos Acosta takes My City_My Life on a tour of Havana.
Carlos Acosta has gone from breakdancing in the backstreets of Havana to principal dancer with the biggest ballet companies in the world. Now based in London, he takes CNN on a tour of the Cuban capital and talks about his enduring love for the city.
U.S. diplomats gained access this week to an American subcontractor detained earlier this month by Cuban authorities, the U.S. Interests Section in Havana said Tuesday.
Latin America's leftist leaders ended a two-day summit in Havana with some tough words for the United States.
A few hundred pro-government demonstrators swarmed Havana's streets on Thursday, encircling a small group of female protesters marching in support of International Human Rights Day.
"It's soul, man!" pronounces Gilles Peterson, his face lighting up as he takes a sip into his chilled mojito. "Cuban music is from the heart, it's free, there are less rules somehow," the DJ extraordinaire tells CNN about the endless energy of the island's music.
Richard Waltzer has a pitch for Cuba: Miller beer and Häagen-Dazs ice cream.
A man named Ernesto pressed an old-fashioned radio to his ear, listening to a baseball game roughly 5,000 miles away.
European diplomats visited the family of a jailed Cuban dissident Thursday over concern the government has arrested him on criminal charges in a bid to block his political activities.
It was the U.S. government's version of the ticker in New York's Times Square, blasting Havana's main seaside strip with anti-Cuba slogans in 5-foot high crimson letters. It symbolized the tit-for-tat diplomatic row between Washington and Havana.
CNN's Shasta Darlington visits one of Havana's most famous boxing halls and talks to aspiring young sluggers.
Sultry voices floated across a leafy park in Havana during an afternoon jam session, punctuated by trumpet blasts and the rhythmic pounding of timbales.
Its oldest stars have died, but Buena Vista Social Club plays on. CNN's Shasta Darlington reports.
My City_My Life has followed celebrities around Moscow, Johannesburg, Havana, Mumbai, Malmo, Miami, Seattle, Tokyo, Copenhagen, London, Berlin, Paris and Florence.
The thing everyone keeps saying about Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was how far he had come, and how fast.
An exhibition of American artworks has just opened in Havana -- the first major American group show in Cuba for over 20 years.
Part of Havana's charm is that it plays by its own rules -- these tips will help you play along.
Waiting for news about my flight, I started to read the fascinating autobiography of Carlos Acosta, the man I was trying to meet half way round the world.
Carlos Acosta is the ballet dancer who breaks all the rules. Perhaps the most famous dancer of his generation, his is a career that wasn't meant to be -- a tough kid from the backstreets of Havana who was forced to study ballet and became a reluctant star.
The seductive port of Havana is an unlikely accident of geography and history, a rum-tinged cocktail of Caribbean exotica, colonial Spanish elegance and Cold War-era politics.
Circles Robinson is a 55-year-old American who has lived in Havana with his family since 2001. He works revising English translations for official Cuban media online publications and in his spare time he writes his own blog and manages the Havana Times Web site.
Havana has a thriving cultural scene and is the setting for world-class ballet and film festivals. But it's also a city of music, sunshine and rum, and Havana knows how to throw a damn fine party. Here are some of the city's biggest and best annual events.
"Che" the movie met Che the myth in Cuba this weekend, and the lengthy biopic of the Argentinean revolutionary won acclaim from among those who know his story best.
Many Cubans thought they'd left behind forever the grim, hungry days that were the norm just after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and, with it, the loss of billions of dollars in subsidies for the Communist state.
Hurricane Ike barreled across the warm, energizing waters of the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday on its way toward the Texas coast after crashing through Cuba's tobacco country
Hurricane Ike's winds and massive storm surge ripped apart houses and toppled trees as the deadly storm roared across Cuba
It was pushing midnight on Saturday when U.S. forward Landon Donovan and I arrived at Cuban Revolution, a kitschy hipster hangout in downtown Providence, R.I., with huge pop-art murals on the walls -- Castro, JFK, Che -- and the lefty singer Manu Chao blasting on the stereo.
The Pope's Secretary of State is the first important figure to visit Cuba, part of the Catholic Church's attempt to mediate a post-Fidel transition
Now that Fidel has resigned, expect a freer economy, a more pragmatic agenda and perhaps other reforms as well
I've been in Havana for more than a week and what's evident is that life here isn't focused on material wealth.
Tiempo Libre named their new CD "What You've Been Waiting For/Lo Que Esperabas." And this week, the guesswork is easy: The seven members of Tiempo Libre are waiting for their Grammy.
A Spanish surgeon has traveled to Havana to consider what steps should be taken to halt the deterioration of Cuban President Fidel Castro's health, a Spanish newspaper reported Sunday.
TS: What is it about a photographer that makes you notice them?
With a streetwise swagger, David Bailey burst onto the London scene to inspire and document the Swinging Sixties with his iconic black and white photographs.
Nowadays both Lenin and Lennon are commemorated in statue in Havana. It's perhaps not surprising; after all, music and politics are synonymous with Cuba and its famous capital. Cuba may be one of the last bastions of Communism, but Castro's twilight years have seen the Caribbean island adopt a more friendly face after its long, lonely years as a Cold War warrior. The country that once almost pitched the world into atomic conflict is now happy to accept tourist dollars. These days Che Guevara, the poster boy of the Revolution, is as much a photogenic salesman for Caribbean beach holidays and Havana city breaks as countercultural icon. Ever since "Buena Vista Social Club" and its spinoffs launched Cuban artists into the mainstream, the island has also reaped the rewards of its rich musical heritage with groups such as Buena Fe among its most successful exports. Narrowly separated from the mainland U.S. by the Florida Straits, Cuba was an American obsession long before the 1959 Revolution. Theodore Roosevelt
Buena Feupdated: Tue Jun 06 2006 09:55:00
I arrive in Cuba via Nassau from Miami. This is a much more complex process than you would have thought.
Buena Feupdated: Fri May 05 2006 07:36:00
Buena Fe are Cuba's most popular group, fusing the island's traditional musical styles such as trova (ballads) and salsa with a more contemporary pop sound.
Havana Forumupdated: Thu May 04 2006 13:12:00
Where's the best place to hang out in Havana? Who's your favorite Cuban musician? Send us your comments and we'll publish them below.
Do you have an inside tip on the Cuban capital? Send us your ideas and suggestions below.
Check out our recommendations for the Cuban capital and send us your ideas and suggestions below.
"My mother taught me you don't need to be rich to share your wealth."
In what organizers called an unprecedented event, dissidents from groups opposed to Fidel Castro's communist regime gathered publicly Friday and chanted "Down with Fidel."
Last fall the Securities and Exchange Commission made 15-year-old Jonathan Lebed a teen celebrity.
Fortune: Playlistupdated: Mon Jul 10 2000 00:01:00
DAVID GRAY White Ladder (ATO) A Welsh singer/song-writer with a reedy rasp and a blue streak of melancholia, Gray descends from Brit folkies like Nick Drake and John Martyn. His songs are somehow b...
Fortune: Playlistupdated: Mon May 29 2000 00:01:00
OMARA PORTUONDO Buena Vista Social Club Presents ... (World Circuit/Nonesuch) If the Social Club is Havana's version of the Rat Pack, tropical songbird Portuondo is its Shirley MacLaine--a graceful...
As the '90s come to a close, here's a look back at some of the decade's finest music. (Part one in a series.)
History lesson: Preservationists who delight in the past are often portrayed as woefully ignorant of today's free-enterprise realities. But historic preservation, it turns out, is an awesome econom...
Listen up, Republicans. It's time to change the subject. Trying to drive Clinton from office ended up driving people away from the GOP. What you need now is less Cotton Mather and more Ronald Reaga...
Since our government's nostalgic embargo keeps most of us away from Cuba, finding a plateful of honest-to-god ropa vieja is like finding a Foggy Bottom bureaucrat with a mind of his own. But a few ...
THE FEUD that has trapped the U.S. and Cuba in a time warp for a whole generation is living its last days. On one side of the Gulf Stream sits the 32-year-old regime of Fidel Castro still pretendin...
WHATEVER HAPPENED to Robert Vesco? For years he was a fixture on evening news broadcasts: the fugitive financier, heavyweight champion of embezzlers. Back in 1970 he took over Investors Overseas Se...
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