HAVANA-  The Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, informed today that Cuba will present on November 1st the third upgrade of its business portfolio, which includes a higher number of projects.     In a meeting with the press in this capital, Malmierca specified details on what will happen from October 31 to November 4 at Havana’s International Trade Fair, FIHAV 2016, the 34th edition of which seeks to continue boosting foreign investment and diversify the island’s economic relations to the maximum.

The also president of the Organizing Committee of the meeting, to take place at the Expocuba showground, pointed out that the renewed portfolio includes new propositions, with presence in all the sectors prioritized by the country for the concretion of business with foreign partners.      According to Malmierca, companies coming from 75 nations have so far confirmed their attendance, a higher figure of participants as compared to the previous edition, a sign of the interest of international entrepreneurs in Cuba and of the rejection of the blockade that the United States imposes on the Island.

It was known that the coming fair will be the largest in terms of its exhibition area -18,400 square meters, two thousand more than that contracted in 2015.      Orlando Hernández, president of the Chamber of Commerce, pointed out that the Fair will include business meetings, the presentation of projects for the export of national goods and services, lectures, and the first forum on investment, which will be held on November 1 and 2.  He also said that in the 5,000 square meters of the Central Pavilion of the showground -traditionally reserved for the host country- 125 entities representing 325 Cuban companies will present their goods and services.  Abraham Maciques, general director of the Palco Business Group, highlighted that Ethiopia, Gabon and Tanzania will participate for the first time.  (ACN)…[+]

The alleged mastermind behind the botched abduction and murder of Brooklyn landlord Menachem Stark was arrested after he stormed into an NYPD stationhouse looking for his brother — who had just been arrested for his own role in the plot, police sources said Friday.

Erskin Felix showed up at the 90th Precinct stationhouse in Williamsburg Thursday looking for his 28-year-old brother Kendall Felix, who had been nabbed by cops in lower Manhattan earlier in the day after they got a tip on his whereabouts. After questioning Erskin Felix, 38, at the stationhouse, cops charged him with kidnapping and murder. His younger brother was charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence for allegedly torching Stark’s body and dumping the father of seven’s remains in a dumpster next to a gas station in Great Neck, L.I. on Jan. 2, 2014.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

Mayor de Blasio insisted there was no rush to judgment when he and the police commissioner blamed an NYPD sergeant in the fatal shooting of a schizophrenic Bronx woman. “The public had a right to know this shouldn’t have happened,” de Blasio said during his Friday WNYC radio appearance. De Blasio, along with top cop James O’Neill, was quick to condemn the sergeant who pulled the trigger Tuesday night when Deborah Danner, 66, was killed inside her apartment. Though the mayor and commissioner came under criticism for their critiques, de Blasio said there was no question that NYPD protocols were ignored and the woman should still be alive.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

HAVANA-Cuba and  the United States signed on Thursday a historic memo of understanding to cooperate in Cancer control. The document, which was penned in Havana by Cuban Health Minister Roberto Morales and by US Secretary of Health Sylvia Burwell, establishes joint actions in the control, research, surveillance and evaluation of Cancer, a disease currently affecting millions of people in the world and a major cause of death both in Cuba and the United States.

The MOU aims at the implementation of collaborations projects and technical meetings to exchange information and good practices in the fight on Cancer. Upon signing the MOU, the US Health Secretary said that they wish to keep boosting this kind of alliance already established between the two health ministries, particularly in the fight on Cancer. She said they are very interested in the joint work with Cuba.  Meanwhile, the Cuban Health Minister said that the signing of the document is an important action following a previous MOU signed in Washington between the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Cuban Health Ministry, which ratifies the will of both sides to advance bilateral health cooperation.

In The Americas, Cancer is the second major cause of death, estimates say that 2.8 million people are diagnosed with Cancer every year, while 1.3 million patients die from Cancer. In Cuba, malign tumors have become the second major cause of death, with a prevalence of about 40 thousand cases annually. (Source: ACN)…[+]

Donald Trump branded Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman” at Monday night’s debate, prompting Clinton’s female supporters to adopt the label as their own. Trump made the comment after Clinton, while discussing her Social Security plan, took a shot at him for avoiding taxes.“We need to put more money into the Social Security trust fund. That’s part of my commitment to raise taxes on the wealthy,” Clinton said. “My Social Security payroll contribution will go up, as will Donald’s — assuming he can’t figure out how to get out of it.”Trump interjected and snapped, “Such a nasty woman.”(Nydailynews.com)...[+]

The mysterious, unseen Planet Nine could be causing the sun to tilt and adding a “wobble” to the solar system, according to a new study. Caltech researchers announced the findings at the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences meeting Wednesday — nine months after the group initially reported about the massive planet lurking at the outer reaches of our solar system.

The planet is believed to have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and takes about 15,000 years to orbit the sun. Its existence has fueled speculation about Planet X or Nibiru, a mythical rogue planet that doomsayers believe will collide or pass near Earth.”Because Planet Nine is so massive and has an orbit tilted compared to the other planets, the solar system has no choice but to slowly twist out of alignment,” Elizabeth Bailey, the study’s lead author, said in a statement.

While the planets in our solar system orbit the sun in a flat plane, the plane itself rotates at a six-degree tilt — making it appear that the sun is cocked at an angle, according to the study.(Nydailynews.com)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN-  The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is providing Jamaica with a technical assistance (TA) grant to strengthen the capacity of the country’s Ministry of Finance. The funding will help to support Jamaica in the ongoing implementation of their Economic Reform Programme, under which critical macroeconomic and structural reforms are being undertaken with the objective of stabilizing the economy and setting the stage for inclusive economic growth.
The Government of Jamaica has identified a need to bolster the Ministry of Finance’s technical expertise in fiscal and macroeconomic policy that supports the country’s reforms under its homegrown structural adjustment programme. The programme is aided and assisted by the IMF and other development partners including CDB, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and the European Union.

The TA grant of USD400,000, approved by CDB’s Board of Directors last week, will help to: strengthen the MOF management team’s capabilities to guide the implementation of critical reforms to support the achievement of key medium-term macroeconomic results; provide technical advice to the Minister of Finance and, by extension, the Cabinet on macroeconomic policy issues in general and, specifically, on how best to achieve the goals and objectives of GOJ’s reform programme; and enhance relevant skills of technical staff within MOF through training and transfer of expertise and knowledge. (CDB)…[+]

Father and stepson good Samaritans stopped an ex-con from raping a stranger on a Brooklyn street and helped catch the attacker, police said. A 27-year-old woman was walking home from a synagogue at about 12:25 a.m Tuesday, on McKibbin and White Sts. in Williamsburg, when a man approached her, cops said. He said, “Hi,” police sources said, but the woman tried to ignore him and keep walking. The next thing she knew, she was waking up in an ambulance. The attack was thwarted by the man and his stepson, who live nearby and were returning home when they heard the woman screaming, sources said.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

Former top cop Bill Bratton championed stun guns as a non-lethal option for police and worked to get more of them into his officers’ hands. In 2006, the NYPD’s Taser arsenal stood at a paltry 160, but that number has climbed steadily. In December 2014, Bratton, who retired last month, announced an initiative to buy 450 stun guns, bringing the total to more than 1,100. His plan was to put the stun guns in the hands of less experienced officers. In the NYPD, the use of the weapons had historically been limited to sergeants and members of the elite Emergency Services Unit.(Telegraaf)…[+]

Condi kept it classy when asked about Trump. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed Donald Trump with few words when asked about a resurfaced video of the brash businessman calling her a “b—h.” The video showed Trump at a Manhattan education expo in 2006, telling the crowd, “Condoleezza Rice, she’s a lovely woman, but I think she’s a b—h.” “She goes around countries and other nations, negotiates with their leaders, comes back and nothing ever happens,” Trump added to applause, according to a Daily News story from the time.(nydailynews.com)…[+]