The President of Cuba's Councils of State and Ministers, Army General Raul Castro Ruz, is heading the Cuban delegation to the First Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), to take place January 27 and 28 in Santiago de Chile.

The vice-president of the Cuban Council of State Esteban Lazo signed on Wednesday the book of condolences opened at the embassy of Zimbabwe in Havana to pay posthumous tribute to John Landa Nkomo, vice-president of that African nation, who recently passed away.

The Executive Vice-president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and the Vice-president of the Council of Ministers and Minister of the People's Power for Mining and Oil, Rafael Ramirez, arrived on Wednesday night at the capital's Jose Marti International Airport.

The season to celebrate the 23rd anniversary of this city's Danza Libre company continued on Wednesday with a lecture dedicated to its founder, US ballerina Elfriede Mahler (1928-1998), one of the figures that have contributed to the development of dance in Cuba.

The Executive Council of the World Health Organization (WHO), now holding its 132nd meeting in Geneva until January 29, appointed Doctor Carissa F. Etienne as the new Regional Director for the Americas of that UN body.

The 54th edition of Havana's Casa de las Americas Literary Prize was inaugurated on Tuesday at the institution's Che Guevara Hall, with a declaration read by its president Roberto Fernandez Retamar that recalled that Latin American and Caribbean integration in the sphere of culture continues to be the raison d'etre of the Prize.

The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States sparks expectations as it boosts regional integration and projects to face current challenges, said the president of the Cuban Parliament's International Relations Commission, Ramon Pez Ferro.

Cuban experts are currently restoring over-300-year-old Spanish government documents at the Santiago de Cuba city hall, which tell about the political, economic and historic development of the eastern territory from 1664 to 1872.

The Cuban National Electoral Commission (CEN) is undertaking intense preparations to guarantee the February 3 upcoming general elections.

As a result of the national strategy to replace costly food imports from the world market, the Cuban flour industry is now able to meet the local demand of the product, calculated at some 150 thousand tons.

Nobel Peace Laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel will travel to Havana to attend the 3rd International Conference for World Balance.

Venezuelan foreign minister Elias Jaua said on Monday that he met with President Hugo Chavez, who took decisions related to the upcoming Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

The President of the Republic of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner arrived in Cuba on Friday to express her solidarity to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who is recovering from cancer surgery in Havana.

Religious communities in Cuba held ceremonies in Havana on Thursday asking for the fast health recovery of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.