NEXT YEAR IN HAVANA:

Cuba frees well-known dissident Hector Palacios (BBC, 12/06/06)

A well-known Cuban dissident imprisoned in a government crackdown on the political opposition in 2003 has been unexpectedly released.[...]

Mr Palacios said that as many as 20 dissidents were dying in Cuban prisons and a further 300 were surviving in what he called very difficult conditions.

Many of the imprisoned dissidents were involved in a petition called the Varela Project, which called for a referendum on democratic reforms in Cuba.

Mr Palacios was one of a group rounded up in March 2003 and charged with conspiring against the country with the US.