
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff arrived Monday to Cuba for a two-day visit to discuss bilateral economic cooperation and human rights. From Cuba Rousseff will travel on to Haiti as she aims to continue the regional diplomatic outreach of her popular predecessor, Lula da Silva.

Brazilian builder Odebrecht plans to produce sugar in Cuba, the company said on Monday as incentives for foreign investment in the Castro family’s regime raise hopes of a recovery in the once-booming sector after decades of decline.

President Raul Castro defended Cuba's one-party political system as a bulwark against US imperialism and said it would remain as it is in a speech on Sunday to a Communist Party conference.

The Cuban regime and the ruling Communist Party are preparing a grand-national conference to try and change the “mentality” of Cubans so that the capitalist-oriented economic reforms and timid political changes sponsored by President Raul Castro are better understood and accepted, according to party sources.

Cuba will open up more of the country's retail services to the private sector next year, allowing Cubans to operate various services such as appliance and watch repair, and locksmith and carpentry shops, official media reported on Monday.

The Cuban government will begin contracting out some services to the private sector next year in a break from the state-dominated past aimed at helping small business develop, government insiders said on Monday.

Social media moved into a new realm in technologically backward Cuba Tuesday when Cuban President Raúl Castro's controversial daughter Mariela began tweeting and quickly got into the Twitter equivalent of a shouting match with dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez.
Cubans will be able to buy and sell houses for the first time in more than five decades in a long-awaited reform that legalizes what many have done for years but also restricts how much property they can own, state-run press said on Thursday.

Cuba will greatly expand the amount of land granted to private farmers, an agriculture official said on Wednesday, as the country struggles to boost food production.

Cuba authorized auto sales among individuals Wednesday, easing a 50-year-old ban that has helped make the Castro brothers-ruled island a living museum of vintage cars.