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Franklin Reyes / AP
The sun and atmospheric conditions combine to create a rainbow colored ring around the sun, known as a solar halo, in the skies above Havana, Cuba on Friday.
Sun halo lights up sky in Cuba
French 'Spiderman' climbs again, this time a hotel in Havana
AFP - Getty Images
Daredevil French climber Alain Robert, known as the French Spiderman, climbs the Habana Libre hotel in Havana, Cuba on Feb. 4, 2013. Robert climbed the 22 floors of the hotel in 28 minutes.
Ramon Espinosa / Reuters
Alain Robert of France, who is known as "Spiderman," climbs up the Habana Libre hotel in Havana on February 4. Robert, who scales buildings all over the world without safety equipment, successfully climbed the hotel which is 413 feet high.
Pool / Reuters
Alain Robert of France, who is known as "Spiderman" climbs up the Habana Libre hotel as a youth looks out a window in Havana.
Desmond Boylan / Reuters
Alain Robert of France climbs the Habana Libre hotel.
Desmond Boylan / Reuters
People watch Alain Robert of France, who is known as "Spiderman", as he climbs the Habana Libre hotel in Havana.
Roberto Leon / NBC News
Robert celebrates atop the hotel with the Cuban national flag.
Daredevil climber Alain Robert scales Cuba's Havana Libre Hotel without safety equipment in just 28 minutes. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
Voluminous Dance features plus-size dancers in Cuba
Franklin Reyes / AP
Dancers Maylin Daza, right, Barbara Paula, center and Rubi Amaro get dressed and apply make up before dancing with their group Danza Voluminosa, or Voluminous Dance, in Havana, Cuba, Nov. 24. Voluminous Dance is a theater company with overweight dancers founded by dancer, choreographer and director Juan Miguel Mas.
Franklin Reyes / AP
Members of Voluminous Dance perform the show 'Crisalidas' or 'Chrysalis' in Havana, Cuba.
Franklin Reyes / AP
Xiomara Gonzalez, left and Maylin Daza, of the Cuban group Danza Voluminosa or Voluminous Dance, smoke cigarettes before a show.
Lightning strikes over Havana
Ramon Espinosa / AP
Lightning illuminates the sky over the Malecon during a lightning storm in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Sept 19, 2012.
'Peanut man' takes advantage of Cuban economic reforms
Enrique De La Osa / Reuters
Raul Perez Sanchez closes a peanut sale.
Perez Sanchez, 80, retired from his job as cook in the University of Havana for which he receives a state pension of 200 Cuban pesos, or about 8 dollars per month, is one of the many taking advantage of the country's economic reforms that now allow small entrepreneurs such as street vendors to operate for the first time. Perez Sanchez makes an average of 2-3 dollars per day selling the nuts, which after paying a monthly tax of 6 dollars to the government, takes the rest home to his family of seven daughters and 11 grandchildren.
Cuban pensioner, Raul Perez Sanchez, nicknamed the "peanut man."
Enrique De La Osa / Reuters
Raul Perez Sanchez packs roasted peanuts in paper cones to sell on the streets, in his home in Old Havana.
Enrique De La Osa / Reuters
Sanchez walks to work in Old Havana.
See more images of Cuba in PhotoBlog.
Man welds, rides 11-foot tall bicycle in Havana, Cuba
Franklin Reyes / AP
Felix Girola waves to people as he takes his self-made bicycle for a spin through downtown Havana, Cuba on Friday. Girola says his bike measures 3.45 meters (11 feet) tall.
Franklin Reyes / AP
Felix Girola climbs up his self-made bicycle as people help steady it as he prepares to take it for a ride in Havana.
Franklin Reyes / AP
Felix Girola leads his self-made bicycle to take it for a ride in Havana, Cuba.
Franklin Reyes / AP
Felix Girola welds a bicycle that he says will measure 5.5 meters (18 feet) tall as he works on it at a friend's iron workshop in Havana, Cuba.
Franklin Reyes / AP
Felix Girola checks the alignment of a bicycle he is building that he says measures 5.5 meters (18 feet) tall.
See more images of bikes and their riders in PhotoBlog.
Desmond Boylan / Reuters
Havana icebergs
A man looks at a creation by Cuban artist Fabelo Hung while walking his dog along Havana's seafront boulevard El Malecon during the 11th Biennial contemporary art exhibition, May 14, 2012.
The creation, a panoramic picture of the Malecon with inserted images of icebergs floating nearby, is titled 'Fresh Air'. The Havana Biennial is a major event for contemporary art, attracting artists and curators from all over the world and running until June 11.
Previously on PhotoBlog: Light show projects image of Titanic on to giant iceberg
Desmond Boylan / Reuters
People use their mobile phones on Havana's seafront boulevard "El Malecon" on April 29.
Ramon Espinosa / AP
Nuns wait as worshippers gather in Revolution Square for the arrival of the Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate a Mass in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, March 28, 2012. Pope Benedict XVI wraps up his visit to Cuba on Wednesday with an open-air Mass in the shrine of the Cuban revolution.
Desmond Boylan / Reuters
People walk along a street housing privately licensed stalls, set up at the entrances of homes in Havana Dec. 8, 2011. Cuba will allow private advertisements in the state-run phone directory for the first time in half a century, state media reported Thursday, in the latest move to a more open economy. President Raul Castro is pushing through a range of reforms in an attempt to strengthen Cuba's struggling Soviet-style economy by encouraging more private initiative and reducing the role and size of the state in some sectors.
Cuba phone book to let new entrepreneurs run ads
This photo, shot to illustrate an economy story, works on many levels. As private entrepreneurs struggle to build businesses, the move to spur yellow pages advertising seems as antiquated as the old car in the center of the photo. In the Internet age, this seems like way too little too late.
AP reports:
HAVANA — The yellow pages are poised for a comeback — in Cuba, at least.
The back section of the phone book will soon provide much-need advertising space to private entrepreneurs opening up shop under wide-ranging economic reforms being pushed by President Raul Castro.
State telephone monopoly Etecsa will charge $10 for a listing in a basic registry that includes a firm's name, address and up to two phone numbers, the Communist Party newspaper Granma said Thursday.
Javier Galeano / AP
A farmer works at a hydroponics farm which uses specialized irrigation methods to grow vegetables in smaller, non-rural areas, in Havana, Cuba, Monday Nov. 21, 2011. The Cuban government is authorizing farmers to sell their products directly to state-run tourist hotels and restaurants, eliminating the need to go through a government redistributor, authorities said Monday.
Cuba OKs direct farm sales to tourism sector
While President Raul Castro's economic reforms are no doubt welcome, only time will tell if they will make a real difference.
AP reports:
HAVANA — The Cuban government is authorizing farmers to sell their products directly to state-run tourist hotels and restaurants, eliminating the need to go through a government redistributor, authorities said Monday.
The measure also lets buyers and sellers negotiate their own prices, according to the Official Gazette, a government publication that disseminates new laws.
Related:
Analysis: Cuba reforms convincing island's cynics
Previous images from Cuba on PhotoBlog.
Desmond Boylan / Reuters
A rainbow is seen over the skyline in Havana, Cuba on Monday, Nov. 7.