Homeschooling Moms!

This is an opportunity to talk with your children about geography, America’s history with Cuba, censorship, and international relations, and justice.

Enjoy!

Paul Haven (AP) writes that a senior Cuban diplomat said that her country is prepared to negotiate a solution in the case of jailed American contractor Alan Gross, but is awaiting a U.S. response.

Foreign Ministry official Josefina Vidal also rejects allegations by the wife of 63-year-old Maryland native Alan Gross that her husband’s health is failing after more than 2 1/2 years in custody. Vidal says in a statement to The Associated Press that “Mr. Gross’s health continues to be normal and he exercises regularly.” Vidal issued the message on Wednesday.

U.S. officials say privately that President Raul Castro’s government has made it increasingly clear it wants to exchange Gross for five Cuban agents sentenced to long jail terms in the United States. Washington rejects such a swap.

Gross was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2011 for crimes against the Cuban state. He was arrested in December 2009 after getting caught illegally bringing satellite telephone equipment onto the island while on a USAID-funded democracy building program. This equipment would be used to by-pass the heavy Internet restrictions. Cuban authorities said American officials, who eventually acknowledged that Mr. Gross lacked a proper visa and was working on a secretive United States Agency for International Development (USAID) program to expand Internet access, must have known such equipment was barred in Cuba without a permit.

For original articles, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10435683 and http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/americas/13cuba.html

Read more http://repeatingislands.com/2012/09/14/cuba-to-negotiate-alan-grosss-release/