Varadero, Cuba, May 9 (EFE).- Cash-strapped Cuba is looking to further boost its long-vital tourism sector, the crown jewel of which is this famed resort town located 138 kilometers (85 miles) east of Havana. A billboard along the palm tree-lined road leading to this peninsula of white-sand beaches and turquoise waters, which receives 44 percent of the tourists who travel to the communist-ruled island, expresses its economic importance: "Everything raised here goes to the people."

Washington, May 7 (EFE).- Thousands of documents and photographs that belonged to Ernest Hemingway and have been stored until now in the house where he lived in Cuba will now become available to the public thanks to a U.S. foundation that has just put them into digital format. The materials had remained unavailable until now at Finca Vigia, where the novelist lived during his 1939-1960 period in Cuba, and their preservation had been endangered because they had been exposed for years to the tropical climate.

Visiting Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said Monday that Cuba was ready to open talks with the United States on swapping their respective nationals held for spying. Speaking to reporters after meeting his Brazilian counterpart Antonio Patriota, Rodriguez referred to US contractor Alan Gross, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba, and of Cubans convicted of espionage in the United States.

Brazil said Monday it was negotiating with Havana potentially to hire and bring in around 6,000 Cuban doctors to work in areas where they are needed in the massive South American nation. "Brazil is looking into the possibility of taking in a number of Cuban doctors" through talks that involve the Pan-American Health Organization, Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said after meeting with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez. He said the estimated 6,000 Cuban health professionals would be deployed in areas where there is a shortage of medical facilities.