Havana  - Historic Cuban leader Fidel Castro accused British Prime Minister Gordon Brown of treating peers, including US President Barack Obama, "with prejudice" during the recent Group of 20 summit in London.

In an article that the Cuban Communist Party daily Granma published Wednesday under his name, Castro further accused host Brown of having behaved in a "visibly derogatory" fashion toward the representatives of the Third World.

Havana - Fidel Castro demanded Tuesday that President Barack Obama put an end to the decades-old embargo of Cuba, in the first official reaction from Havana to Obama's move to end US restrictions on travel and remittances by Cuban Americans. "Not a word was said of the blockade, which is the most cruel of all measures," the former Cuban president said in a piece published Tuesday under his name in Cuban state media.

The White House announced moves on Monday to lift all restrictions on Cuban Americans travelling and sending money back to their home country as part of a much-anticipated reversal of US policies toward Cuba.

Havana  - Cuba's retired leader Fidel Castro Wednesday showed a flash of his former outspoken self, writing that this week's G20 summit in London reflects deep conflicts and yet holds the welfare of the world's workers in its hands.

The article, published in Cuban state media, also stressed the importance of the summit for the world.

Havana - Cuba is investing in additional hotels in the hope of increased tourist numbers.

"We're adding to our hotel capacity, by about 3,000 rooms," Deputy Tourism Minister Maria Elena Lopez Reyes told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

In 2008, the number of foreign visitors rose to 2.25 million from 2.152 million. Although there was an overall drop in European visitors, the decline was offset by more visitors from Canada, Latin America and Russia.

Havana  - Former Cuban foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque and former secretary of the Cuban Council of Ministers Carlos Lage - a sort of Cuban prime minister - resigned from all their political positions and admitted their "mistakes," Cuban state media reported Thursday.

Havana  - When legendary Cuban musician Chucho Valdes enters the old piano repair shop in the heart of Havana, Irishmen Ciaran Ryan and Alex Jeffers cannot hide their broad smiles.

What started as an Irish volunteer project to help Cuba repair pianos, and train specialists, has taken on a dimension that would have been hard to imagine in 2006. At that time, the music-lovers had started looking for resources in Ireland and for ways of getting them to Havana.

Thanks to the initiative known as Una Corda (One String), countless Irish tourists have hauled parts for pianos in their luggage as well as tools to repair instruments in official Cuban institutions and those in private property.