Cuban Dayron Robles Sets World Hurdles Record

HAVANA, Cuba, June 12 (acn) Running in his third race of the season, Cuban Dayron Robles set a World record in the 110m Hurdles, clocking 12.87 at the Golden Spike Grand Prix, IAAF World Athletics Tour, in Ostrava, as the official website of the event reported (www.iaaf.org).
Blazing from the start, the 21-year-old runner had forged a commanding lead by the fourth hurdle and never relented. His performance knocked 0.01 seconds from the previous record of 12.88 set by Liu Xiang on 11 July 2007 in Lausanne.

Hay festival: Monty Don returns in revolutionary mood – praise for Cuba's self-sufficiency

Writer, broadcaster and national treasure Monty Don was in revolutionary mood as he made his first public appearance since a stroke led to his retiring as presenter of Gardeners' World.
Of his health, Don said: "I'm fine. I'm recovering well. I can't do regular TV – you know what it's like, 12 hour days – so I am happy to have that burden taken from me at the moment." He stepped down from the BBC television programme six weeks ago.

CUBADISCO 2008 awards announced

The premier event for the Cuban recording industry, the Cubadisco 2008 Awards were held May 17-25 at Karl Marx Theater, Havana. Many artists were awarded in different categories, among them Cuban saxophonist César López who was awarded in the category of Instrumental Music with the CD Clásicos de Cuba (Bismusic); Ulises Hernández won the Cubadisco 2008 Grand Prize with the CD Mozart en La Habana; the CD Revoluxion, by X Alfonso, was awarded the Fusion Prize; DVD Secretos Cantados, by Liuba María Hevia (Bismusic), won in the Children´s Music category; Haila María Mompié was awarded the Dance Pop Prize with the CD Tal como soy (Bismusic); Elito Revé y su Charangón won the Popular Dance Music Prize with the CD Fresquecito.com; the CD ORU Ritual y Fiesta de lo cubano by Sergio Vitier y Rogelio Martínez Furé (Colibrí) won the Folk music prize; Special Awards were made to the CDs Noel Nicola -37 canciones compiled by Silvio Rodríguez & Ana Lourdes Martínez (Ojala) and Colección Original de Cuba: Benny Moré. El bárbaro del ritmo compiled by Jorge Rodríguez (Egrem).

Culture will Make the Difference in Cuba as Tourist Destination

HAVANA, Cuba, May 6 (acn) "Culture can and should be the distinctive
element that our country offers visitors," said Cuban Deputy Minister of
Tourism Maria Elena Lopez on Monday evening at a press conference before
the opening of the Cuba 2008 International Tourism Fair.
The 28th Tourism Fair opened with a performance by the Cuban National
Ballet at the Grand Theater and on Tuesday moves to the El Morro
Fortress overlooking the Havana Bay, reported Granma newspaper.

Cuban Boxers hoped to raise British 2012 Olympic chances

NINETEEN sports venues in the North East have been confirmed as potential Olympic training camps for the 2012 Games. In March former world boxing champion Glenn McCrory, whose Newcastle boxing school is among the 19, revealed he is close to tying the famous Cuban boxing team to a North East training camp. He set up the Newbiggin Hall school in 2006, has already brought Cuban coaches to Tyneside and is returning to the Caribbean for more talks. Mr McCrory said: "It's fantastic news and it's all systems go now. We've put a lot of hard work in to take this from nothing to a stage where we're going to probably host the greatest boxing nation on Earth.
"I'm going back to Cuba in May and we're very hopeful that we'll have them here, and I'm in talks with a couple of South American teams as well. I want some kids in the region to be competing with them, but I also wanted to bring somebody here so they could see where they can get if they work hard."
http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2008/03/04/venues-vie-for-games-61634-20553047/