Havana  - Three Russian warships sailed into Havana on Friday for the first time since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, as Moscow boosts relations with the Cold War ally and long-time foe of the United States.

Gun salutes were fired as the missile destroyer Admiral Chabanenko sailed into the port of Cuban capital Havana, accompanied by two other support ships. Hundreds of curious locals and tourists crowded the waterfront to get a first glimpse of the ships.

Havana - The Cuban dissident group Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) has asked the European Parliament to lobby on behalf of the freedom of political prisoners in the Caribbean nation.

"The Cuban people are not free. They suffer under totalitarian oppression from a regime that denies us rights which are recognized around the world as human rights," MCL president Oswaldo Paya wrote in a letter publicized Wednesday in Havana.

Havana - Russia and Cuba are to revive their historically close ties, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro said after talks in Havana late Thursday.

Medvedev and Castro met for several hours and, in a demonstration of friendship, Castro also joined the Russian president in visiting a recently opened Russian Orthodox church in the capital of the communist country.

Moscow plans to step up cooperation with Havana in the area of nuclear energy as well as oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, Medvedev announced.

Havana - Cuban President Raul Castro replaced his foreign investment minister after the agency reported a drop in the number of state firms receiving foreign investment.

The announcement of the cabinet change was made Wednesday night on state-run television and did not give a reason for removing Marta Lomas, 58, and replacing her with UN Ambassador Rodrigo Malmierca, 52.

Havana - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with the ailing former Cuban president Fidel Castro, whom he said he found "very lucid and active."

Lula and the elderly Castro - who formally stepped down from the Cuban presidency in February to pursue his recovery for unspecified health problems - met for some two hours just before the end of the Brazilian's less-than-24-hour visit to Cuba.

Havana - Cuba is not at risk of "famine" after hurricanes Gustav and Ike devastated its agriculture and infrastructure, Cuban Finance Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Garcia stressed Monday.

"There is no reason to speculate or raise expectations about a famine situation. None of those issues have any justification in our case," he told Cuban media.

"The population's food is guaranteed," Rodriguez Garcia noted.