Carnival time in Santiago de Cuba begins July 21 and runs until July 27, an emblem of traditional popular culture and one of the most famous carnivals in Cuba.

The main areas for these celebrations were ready: Trocha, Marti, Santa Ursula, and the neighborhood of Sueño, while the neighborhood of Victoriano Garzon was set to host the jury that will judge the traditional comparsas (parade groups), floats and congas (music groups).

Cuban guitarist and composer Manuel Galban, founder of Los Zafiros quartet and featured guitarist of Buena Vista Social Club, died on Thursday in Havana at 80. His ashes will be buried Friday at the Colon Cemetery in Havana.

Cuba beat Chinese Taipei 10-5 on Sunday and in the process took the crown of the World Baseball Challenge tournament that concluded in the Canadian city of Prince George.

Last week Cuba launched the interactive forum 'El engaño de las razas' ('Deceit of races' ) at www.foroscubarte.cult.cu which has been organized by CUBARTE and the Cuban Association of Artists and Writers, UNEAC, in the context of the celebrations for the International Year of the Afro-descendants.

The United Nations General Assembly 64th period session declared 2011 as the International Year of the Afro-descendants with the object to strengthen national measures and international and national cooperation for the benefit of the Afro-descendants regarding the total enjoyment of their economic, cultural, social, civil and political rights, their participation in all fields of society and the promotion of a greater respect and knowledge of their diversity, their heritage and their culture.

The United Nations on Thursday acknowledged progress made in the struggle against racial discrimination in Cuba, thanks to state policies aimed at benefiting all sectors of the society.

In statements to Prensa Latina, UN Population Fund assistant representative Rolando Garcia stated that the country's achievements are an example for the world, and Cuba now leads Latin America in terms of equal opportunities for its citizens. Those developments are a result of policies promoting citizen and inclusion promoted by the nation's leadership, said Garcia, speaking as part of Cuba and People of African Descent in America.

A previously unpublished diary by the Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara has been unveiled in Cuba.

His widow, Aleida March, said she had decided to publish the writings unedited.

Carlos Acosta is one of the world's greatest dancers. He was born in Cuba; his father was a truck driver. For the last two decades he has been thrilling audiences around the world with his power and his grace. He says that in ballet there is beauty and freedom but there is also pain and sacrifice. Could that be a sign that Carlos Acosta's career is about to move in a different direction? He tells BBC HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur.

Eliades Ochoa was a guest of honor in Cubadisco 2011, an event devoted to son held in Santiago de Cuba this May. He is the troubadour of the Buena Vista Social Club and one of the most outstanding musicians in Cuba today, a real ambassador of Santiago's son in the world.

In 2010, his CD Afrocubism was chosen the Best Album. Ochoa's international concerts have kept him on the stage for more than two hours.

A new book, Buena Vista in the Club: Rap, Reggaetón, and Revolution in Havana (Duke University Press) traces the trajectory of the Havana hip hop scene from the late 1980s to the present and analyzes its partial eclipse by reggaetón.

"This masterful portrait of the rap and reggaetón scenes in modern Cuba surpasses existing work in its level of insight, depth, and contemporaneity. Geoffrey Baker offers a thoroughly original street-level ethnography of the local rap scene and illuminates the often contradictory workings of the various bureaucratic institutions involved in popular music. He also develops a significant critique of foreign portrayals of contemporary Cuban music culture and of the local/global dynamics of ‘imitating' foreign rap (or another genre) as opposed to ‘nationalizing' it with sprinkles of local musical flavor."-Peter Manuel, author of Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae

Eugenio Selman, president of the 9th Congress on Satisfactory Longevity underway in Havana, said Cuba had surpassed Japan as the country with the highest number per capita of people over 100 years old.
Selman pointed out that Cuba has 1,551 living people who are 100 years old or more on an 11.2 million population, which represent a higher percentage than of Japan's, former leader in this parameter worldwide.

Mariela Castro Espin, Director, National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX), began the IV Cuban Day Against Homophobia with a press conference. There will be educational and cultural activities until 17 May, to celebrate the World Day Against Homophobia.

Cuban cyclists Lisandra Guerra, Yoanka Gonzalez and Marlies Mejias won gold medals on the third and fourth days of the Pan-American Cycling Championship in Medellin.

Guerra was determined to win her second gold of this tournament, and defeated Canadian Monique Sullivan, a Pan-American record-holder, in the women's speed final, the Cuban News Agency reported.

This marvellous music was created during rehearsals for a Havana Cultura tour, at the legendary Egrem studios in Havana which have seen some of the greatest sessions ever recorded by Cuban musicians. Given this daunting task, Danay Suarez rises to the challenge and this album reveals her to be one of the most talented singers to come out of Cuba in the last 10 years. When paired with the brilliant pianist Roberto Fonseca the results are stunning.
Each of these 4 extended tracks (almost an hour of music) give the artists room to spread their musical wings and soar. The songs range from complex Latin jazz to delicate lament, from cool classic son to energetic rumba, each piece played with a sense of adventure and exploration.
The opening – and key – track ‘Ser o no ser' is a deep and funky improvisation over a classic Fonseca hypnotic baseline. Danay's singing is by turns soulful, jazzy and vulnerable as she wrings out every emotion possible from the song, even laughing out loud at one point. ‘Hay un lugar' is full of delicate regret with both Danay and Fonseca at their most romantic. ‘Guajira' is a quite brilliant take on the old classic, a dark and almost nightmarish journey through lost love, haunted by the ghosts of old soneros. The final track is a stunning Afro-jazz piece where Danay takes on the power of goddess Yemaya, almost drowning in the music created by this exceptional four piece band.
This is, to my ears, by far the best music to come out of the Havana Cultura sessions and amongst the most vital to emerge from Cuba during the last decade. It is to Gilles Peterson's credit that these quite phenomenal artists were given the time and space to reveal their talents fully and revel in the sheer joy of music making.
Almost defying categorization, this album is an essential purchase for all music lovers and sits comfortably alongside the other greats of Cuban music.

Review of exhibition: Cuban Gold: Viva la Reproduccion – contemporary prints by over 20 artists in Cuba

A sculpture of revolutionary legend Che Guevara – made by an Edgeley artist – is being sent to the Cuban hero's daughter.

And the life-size solid bronze bust, made by John Blakeley at the request of Cuban officials, is destined to go on display at the nation's museum to their hero.