Cuban Demand: Power to the Peso!

Thu Apr 3, 2008 5:34 PM EDT

President Raul Castro has lifted restrictions on consumer goods and hotel stays, but most Cubans get paid in virtually worthless pesos, which can't buy basic items like toilet paper, let alone a DVD player or poolside mojito cocktails at the Hotel Capri.

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cuba, currency, world-news, raul-castro, dual-currency, hotel-capri

Q&A on Cuban Cell Phone Service

Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:05 PM EDT

Cell phone service will soon be widely available to Cubans for the first time. Some questions and answers:

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cuba, phones, world-news, qa

Cubans Temper Hopes of Post-Fidel Change

Sun Mar 23, 2008 2:10 PM EDT

Cubans expecting their new president to transform their strained lives are tempering their hopes as they gradually accept him at his word: Small improvements will come with time, but nothing will happen overnight.

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cuba, on, change, world-news, hold

Groups Call for Prisoner Releases

Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:09 PM EDT

International human rights and journalism advocacy groups called Tuesday on President Raul Castro's government to free critics still serving long sentences five years after a broad crackdown that landed 75 people behind bars.

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cuba, opposition, world-news, raul-castro

First penis transplant patient hated it

Seeded on Tue Sep 19, 2006 3:23 PM EDT (PhysOrg.com)

A Chinese accident victim who became the world's first successful recipient of a transplanted penis psychologically rejected it and asked for its removal. Surgeons at Guangzhou General Hospital said it took 15 hours of microsurgery on the unidentified 44-year-old man to attach …

health

Bush assassinated? New film depicts it - TELEVISION - MSNBC.com

Seeded on Fri Sep 1, 2006 4:24 PM EDT (msnbc.com)

LONDON - A British television network plans to broadcast a dramatic, documentary-style film about a fictional assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush, the network's head said Thursday.

entertainment, bush, assassinated

Man catapulted 70 feet into the air while working on cellphone tower

Seeded on Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:19 AM EDT (-)

MAHOMET – A Mahomet-Seymour High School graduate was reported to be in stable condition Tuesday evening, a week after being catapulted 60 to 70 feet into the air while working on a cellphone tower in Rochester, near Springfield.

accident, phone, odd-news, cell, tower

Wal-Mart ends automated movie suggestions after offensive combinations

Seeded on Fri Jan 6, 2006 7:32 AM EST (USA Today)

Wal-Mart Stores is shutting down the automated system that creates movie recommendations on its shopping website after the system randomly linked a Planet of the Apes DVD to films about African-Americans including Martin Luther King Jr., the company said Thursday.

tech, internet, video, us-news, racist, walmart