Havana

Carlos Bosch's job as a reporter with the Catalonian Public Television program "Trenta Minuts" requires that he cover the world's hot spots -- Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kosovo, Mozambique. So each summer, Bosch -- who is 51, single, of wiry build, and seems to run on adrenaline and double espressos -- tries to spend August at a house he owns in the Dominican Republic, relaxing in his hammock, reading, playing tennis.

Experience the real Cuba on a "People to People Cultural Journey" sponsored by the Palos Verdes Art Center. The eight-day tour, which features local guides and visits to museums, art centers and homes of Havana residents, is a licensed cultural exchange program. Besides visiting Havana the group will travel outside the capital to the cities of Triinidad and Cienfuegos, where participants will meet residents, learn about their daily lives and about the 400-year history of the Valley of the Sugar Mills.  When: The tour departs Oct. 25; other people-to-people Cuban exchange tours will be offered November through February.

Tomas Gutierrez Alea's "Up to a Certain Point" (opening Friday at the Fox International in Venice) takes its title from a Havana dockworker's remark explaining the degree to which he's willing to accept equality between the sexes. He estimates that he can go 87% of the distance, but that's it.

Dolores Merino of Los Angeles was on vacation in Cuba early this month when she came across these women in old Havana who brightened the mood.    

In March, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco took a trip to the Caribbean and returned with an unusual souvenir: a $15-million deal for state agricultural exports to Cuba, a small-but-growing trade partner. Blanco, accompanied by three dozen businesspeople and port executives, was only the fourth U.S. governor to visit the communist-run island nation since the United States began restricting trade in 1960 in an attempt to oust President Fidel Castro.

"Counterrevolutionaries" seeking to flee the island shot and killed three Cuban policemen and badly wounded a fourth officer when they tried to steal a launch from a boatyard east of Havana early Thursday, Cuba's Interior Ministry said. An official statement said the incident, less than a week after 34 Cubans fled to Florida in a stolen helicopter, occurred at Tarara on the northern coast about nine miles east of Havana.

The U.S. government has named a new head of its diplomatic mission in Cuba after a nine-month break, officials said here on Friday. The mission's interim head, Thomas Gerth, said career diplomat John J. Taylor was appointed by the State Department to replace Curtis W. Kamman, who was abruptly withdrawn as chief of the U.S. interests section in Havana in January. Gerth told reporters that Taylor would take his post soon but gave no date.

At last count, there are more than 160 tour operators with licenses from the Treasury Department to run people-to-people Cuba trips. Here are three: Insight Cuba , (800) 450-2822, http://insightcuba.com/cuba-tours . I was on the Classic Cuba trip, with prices starting at $3,595 a person for seven nights and eight days. Airfare is not included. Geographic Expeditions, (888) 570-7108, http://www.geoex.com/trips/cuba . Eight-day trips from $5,680, not including round-trip airfare from Miami to Havana.

Sixteen Cubans who were aboard a Cuban airliner that was hijacked and diverted to Florida returned to Havana from Miami. Cuban President Fidel Castro greeted them at the airport. Six Cuban crew members and 24 passengers had been held by U.S. authorities since Wednesday's hijacking. Some Cubans decided to stay, U.S Customs spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said. Six men suspected of hijacking the plane are jailed on federal air-piracy charges.